Ros Barber is many things.
The daughter of a physicist and a special needs teacher, Ros Barber has a degree in biology (specialising in Evolution Theory and genetics) and three further degrees. In her twenties, she became a published poet, a computer programmer and systems analyst, then a smallholder (with beekeeping and poultry management qualifications). In her thirties, she was a freelance writer and creative writing tutor, a waitress and a night club administrator. In her forties, while working on the side as a trauma therapist, she completed a PhD in English Literature and a prize-winning, critically acclaimed debut novel. Add in comedy training, neurodiversity (ADHD and prosopagnosia) and domestic abuse survival, and you get the full picture. Now? She is pulling it all together. In a polymath kind of way.
Writer
Ros is an award-winning writer of both fiction and non-fiction. Winner of the Desmond Elliott Prize and the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award for her debut The Marlowe Papers, which was also longlisted for the Women’s Prize. Her second novel, Devotion, described as “an unexpectedly piercing exploration of loss” by Kirkus Reviews, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Prize. With a pacy-yet-crafted style frequently described as “compelling”, she explores themes of identity and loss in stories which stay with you long after you’ve finished reading. Her poem “Material” is a set text for the Edexcel English Literature ‘A’ Level in England and Wales. Sign up for Ros’s newsletter.
Speaker
Ros is experienced speaker. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4 (Front Row, Woman’s Hour) and Radio 3 (Free Thinking, The Verb). Speaker credits include talks at the London Bookfair, Shakespeare’s Globe, the Shakespeare Festival in Oregon, the British Council in Turkey. Podcast guest spots include New York Public Library Podcast, That Shakespeare Life, Historical Times Podcast, Forum Borealis, Much Ado about the AQ, Don’t Quill the Messenger. With her new project, How to Evolve, she combines her background as a domestic abuse survivor and trauma therapist with her scientific education to promote trauma release as an important component of humanity’s evolution. Contact Ros through LinkedIn.
Researcher
Ros is an award-winning literary historian. She is a three-time winner of the Calvin and Rose G Hoffman Prize for distinguished work on Christopher Marlowe and Patron of the UK’s Marlowe Society. Director of Research at the Shakespearean Authorship Trust, she is the author and presenter of Coursera’s Introduction to Who Wrote Shakespeare, editor and co-author of 30-Second Shakespeare (2015), and the author of the online compendium Shakespeare: the Evidence. You can find out more about her peer-reviewed articles here. Sign up to find out more about her new Kit Marlowe project.