Ros Barber

Rosalind Barber^[1] (born 1964) is an English novelist, poet and academic.^[2]

Dr Ros Barber
Born	1964
Occupation	Novelist, poet, academic
Nationality	British
Notable work	The Marlowe Papers
Notable awards	Desmond Elliott Prize, Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, Hoffman Prize
Website
rosbarber.com

Education

She has a BSc in Biology, an MA in creative writing, the arts and education, and a PhD in English literature, all from the University of Sussex. She also has an Open University BA in English literature and philosophy.^[3]

Barber has worked as a computer programmer.^[4]

Novels

Barber's first novel, The Marlowe Papers (2012), is written in blank verse. She subscribes to the Marlovian theory of Shakespeare authorship.^[5][6] In the book, Marlowe's death is a ruse and he writes plays in Shakespeare's name. The book won the Desmond Elliott Prize^[7] and the Authors' Club First Novel Award.^[8] Her second novel, Devotion (2015),^[9] was shortlisted for the Encore Award.^[10]

Barber made an appearance at the Brighton Fringe in 2012.^[11][12] She and Nicola Haydn wrote a one-man stage adaptation of The Marlowe Papers performed in 2016.^[13][14]

Poetry

Of Barber's three volumes of poetry, Material (2008) was a Poetry Book Society recommendation.^[10] Its title poem, which also appears in the Faber anthology Poems of the Decade (2015), was in England's school sixth-form syllabus as of 2017.^[15]

Academic position

As of 2021, Barber lectures in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Goldsmiths, University of London.^[16]

Awards

She won the Hoffman Prize in 2011, 2014 and 2018.^[17][18][1]

Year	Work	Award	Result	Ref
2011	The Marlowe Papers	Hoffman Prize	Won	[17]
2013		Authors' Club First Novel Award	Won
		Desmond Elliott Prize	Won
		Women's Prize for Fiction	Longlisted	[19]
2014	"Shortly he will forget to go"	Hoffman Prize	Won	[18]
2015	Devotion	Encore Award	Shortlisted	[10]
2018	"Big Data, Little Certainty"	Hoffman Prize	Won	[1]

Bibliography

Novels

• The Marlowe Papers (2012)
• Devotion (2015)

Poetry

• How Things Are on Thursday (2004)
• Not the Usual Grasses Singing (2005)
• Material (2008)

Non-fiction

• 30 Second Shakespeare (2015)

References

1. "The Calvin & Rose G Hoffman Prize winners". The King's School, Canterbury. 13 December 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
2. Forward Arts. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
3. Goldsmiths College site. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
4. Masters, Tim (28 June 2013). "Author faced 'hostility' over book". BBC. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
5. Winkler, Elizabeth (May 2023). Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies. Simon & Schuster. p. 296. ISBN 9781982171261.
6. Nicholl, Charles (25 January 2013). "Exiting the Stage". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 October 2019. Dr. Barber is a "Marlovian" not only in the generic and beneficial sense of being an admirer of Marlowe, but in the more specific and, some will say, more tiresome sense of being a believer in the theory that Marlowe wrote the plays of Shakespeare.
7. Masters, Tim (27 June 2013). "The Marlowe Papers wins Desmond Elliott Prize". BBC News. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
8. "Ros Barber – The Poetry Society". poetrysociety.org.uk. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
9. Feay, Suzi (19 August 2015). "Devotion by Ros Barber review – the conflict between religion and science". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
10. McLoughlin, Nigel (2016). The Portable Poetry Workshop. Macmillan Publishers. pp. viii. ISBN 978-1-137-60596-2. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
11. Author's page. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
12. Royal Literary Fund. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
13. Hall, Duncan (29 January 2016). "The Marlowe Papers, Otherplace At The Basement, Kensington Street, Brighton, until Saturday, January 29, call 01273 987516". The Argus (Brighton). Retrieved 30 September 2021.
14. Barber, Ros (12 February 2016). "Further Developments with The Marlowe Papers". Ros Barber. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
15. "Amendment to GCE AS and A level English Literature, Prescribed texts – Poems of the Decade" (PDF). pearson.com. Pearson. 4 January 2017. Retrieved 13 November 2017.
16. Goldsmiths page. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
17. "THE MARLOWE PAPERS by Ros Barber | Kirkus Reviews". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
18. "Hoffman Prize Winners". The Marlowe Society. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
19. "Women's Prize for Fiction 2013 longlist announced | News | RGfE". readinggroups.org. Retrieved 26 June 2024.

External links

• Staff page at Goldsmiths, University of London
• Ros Barber at Royal Literary Fund
• Material Poem Analysis and Commentary
• The Bard didn’t use Warwickshire dialect – so was he really Shakespeare?, article by Barber at The Conversation