Ros Barber

Dr. 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. Her appointment ended in 2024.^[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)

Personal life

Barber's parents divorced when she was young. A brother of hers died of cancer.^[20]

Barber first married in the early 1990s. The marriage produced three sons, and ended in divorce when she was in her mid-30s.^{[21] [22][23]}

After receiving a financial settlement from her first husband, approximately two years after their breakup, Barber went on a two week trip to Costa Rica in February 2001 with a close friend named Paul. Intended as an exploration of tantric sex but without any romance involved, the two unexpectedly fell in love and returned to the United Kingdom a married couple. As of August 2025, they have been married for nearly a quarter century.^[24][25]