Karen Downs-Barton

Karen Downs-Barton (@downsbarton ) reads a poem from her John Pollard Prize-winning collection, MINX. ‘These poems tell an often harrowing tale of a Romani girl’s experience of the Care System, the School system... The girl who was so often forced into clothes which were not hers captures the free spirit of rebellion… Moving, magical, mesmerising’ ― JACKIE KAY From ‘MAGERIPEN: THE RULES OF HYGIENE’ To touch the bunched clothes, washed in their grey swill, the caretaker uses callipers, hoiks steamy meshed arms, legs, bodies to tumble dry. Mists sigh from a drooping proboscis hanging at a part-opened window. Fust lingers on clothing, skin. I imagine a dung beetle with pincer mandibles rolling shitball clothes. Under the motto ‘Personal Possessions Breed Discontent’ I practise the pretence of interest in the wonders of his washing machines. I’m looking for the clothing I arrived in. It won’t be stealing. No one here wants to wear clothes worn by a ‘dirty Gypsy’. #chattopoets #poetofinstagram #poetrylovers #careleaver #poemoftheday

The 2026 Pollard Poetry Prize winner, Karen Downs-Barton, talks about her winning acclaimed book, 'Minx', an autobiographical collection of poems, centring themes of children growing up in care, mothers who had to "set food on the table", and the use of the Romani language in literature. Karen also shares some personal reflections from creating 'Minx'. #PollardPoetryPrize #Poetry #PollardPrize #Author #TrinityCollegeDublin

The John Pollard Poetry Prize of 2026 was awarded to Karen Downs-Barton with her book 'Minx'. The prize is awarded annually for an outstanding debut collection of poetry in the English language. Valued at €10,000, the prize is sponsored by the John Pollard Foundation and administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre in the School of English at Trinity. Congratulations Karen! 📚 #PollardPoetryPrize #JohnPollardPoetryPrize #PoetryCompetiton

I’m really looking forward to reading alongside Zoe Brooks and Christopher Horton in just two sleeps. We’ll be reading from our collections and talking all things poetry at Swindon Festival of Literature. @lowershawfarm @swindonfestivalofliterature @zoebrooks1958 @chris.horton8 #poetry #swindon #festival

Huge congratulations to Karen Downs-Barton! Her collection MINX has won the 2026 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize for an outstanding poetry debut. She was awarded the €10,000 prize at a ceremony at Trinity College, Dublin, and said: “To have won? I haven’t digested that yet. I can only describe it viscerally — my heart finds itself too fast and too large to be confined by these ribs.” The Chair of Judges said: “MINX is an extraordinary first collection. An Anglo-Romani childhood is evoked, worlds of lost children and found languages are fallen through. It is a reminder of the wondrous reach of poetry, that it can both still the heart and affirm it.” This year’s judges were Eoin McNamee, Seán Hewitt and Una Mannion. Former winners include Hannah Sullivan, Isabel Galleymore, Gail McConnell, Gustav Parker Hibbett and Victoria Adukwei Bulley. #chattopoetry #johnpollardprize

I’m looking forward to sharing poetry and chatting all things poetry, family and inheritance with @hesketherica @luckyflowerhowe and @aprilyee tomorrow at @deptfordlounge with Deptford Literature Festival. Join us for an exploration of our latest collections and what makes us tick as writers.

Congratulations to Karen Downs-Barton! MINX has been shortlisted for the 2026 John Pollard Foundation International Poetry Prize, awarded annually for an outstanding debut collection of poetry in the English language. Valued at €10,000, the prize is sponsored by the John Pollard Foundation, and administered by the Trinity Oscar Wilde Centre in the School of English at Trinity College Dublin (@trinitycollegedublin ). The winner will be announced at a ceremony in Trinity in April 2026. Heart-breaking, intense, and uplifting, MINX is a lyrical tour-de-force set in the vibrant but precarious world of a multi-racial Romani family. A mother struggles to support her two daughters on the proceeds of her shadowy profession. Their powerful bond helps the sisters survive when they’re taken into care, in a children’s home that forcibly separates them. The shortlisted publications are:  * Dane Holt: Father’s Father’s Father (Carcanet Press) * Michael Mullen: goonie (Corsair) * Karen Downs-Barton: Minx (Chatto and Windus) * Abu Bakr Sadiq: Leaked Footages (University of Nebraska Press) * Darby Price: All The Lands We Inherit (Black Lawrence Press) Congratulations to all the poets and publishers! #minx #chattopoetry #johnpollardprize

I’m looking forward to reading with @luckyflowerhowe and @hesketherica in my old stamping ground.

At #DeptfordLitFest, come together to hear poets @luckyflowerhowe , @hesketherica and @downsbarton read from their latest collections - exploring family, motherhood and the lines that connect us across generations 🌱 In this conversation hosted by @aprilyee , discover what it means to be both a parent and child through the lens of inherited stories, colonial histories, climate crisis and care. 📍Deptford Lounge, 2.30-3.30pm, BSL Interpreted Tickets are available now on our website. Visit link in our bio for more 🔗 #herstory #womenshistory #womenshistorymonth

We’re back! Soho Poly Poetry March 12th - feat. @hesketherica @downsbarton @nick.makoha and Wayne Holloway-Smith ✨ After a little poetry holiday we’re back with a big one. Join us on Thursday 12th March at @thesohopoly for a fantastic line up of poets. I cannot wait! Tickets now up on eventbrite (see poster and link in bio) and student/free tickets available via DM email. Spread the word and see you there 🔥 Erica Hesketh is a poet and editor, originally from Japan and Denmark, now based in London. Her poetry has been commissioned by the Royal Festival Hall, Spread the Word and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2016 to 2024 she was Director of the @poetrytranslationcentre . Her debut collection, In the Lily Room, was published by @ninearchespress in 2025, and she has a pamphlet forthcoming with @guillemotpress this summer. Karen Downs-Barton is an Anglo-Romani writer who, after a peripatetic childhood including times in state care, now lives in Wiltshire. Her collection Minx was published by @chattobooks in 2025 to wide acclaim. She is the winner of the Cosmo Davenport-Hines prize (2021) and a Creative Future silver medallist (2022). Her pamphlet Didicoy was published by the @poetrybusiness in 2023 and was selected as a @poetrybooksociety Choice that year. Wayne Holloway-Smith is the author of Alarum(2017) and Love Minus Love (2020), which was shortlisted for the @tseliotprize and the Ledbury Munte Prize for Best Second Collection. His latest book, RABBITBOX, is out in March 2026 with @scribneruk . He won the @thepoetrysociety Geoffrey Dearmer Prize in 2016 and The National Poetry Competition in 2018. He lives in London and is Editor of The Poetry Review. Nick Makoha is an Ugandan poet and playwright based in London. His 2025 T.S Eliot Prize nominated collection The New Carthaginians (@penguinukbooks follows his debut collection Kingdom of Gravity (2017), which was shortlisted for the @forwardprizes for Best First Collection and named one of The Guardian’s Best Books of the Year. He is a Cave Canem Graduate Fellow, a Complete Works alumnus and founder of the @obsidianfoundation . He is a Fellow of the @royalsocietyofliterature .

Chuffed to see these Chatto books among @betarish ’s best poetry of 2025 for the @guardian . Congratulations @boixleo and @downsbarton ! Also taking the chance to re-ogle the gorgeous cover designs by @vintagebooksdesign for Leo and Karen’s collections, gracing the article: hats off to designers Amelia and Rosie. Congratulations to all the other poets here, what wonderful company to be in - and I‘d second Rishi’s passionate sign-off for @rrmscott ’s stunning book. ‘Leo Boix’s /Southernmost Sonnets/ (Chatto & Windus) celebrates a more familiar form as it weaves explorations of his native Latin America with ruminations on same-sex marriage. The combination is spellbinding throughout, the images simple yet vivid; Boix is a modern master of using the sonnet to illuminate “each day that passes, the hidden thread that binds us together”.’ ‘Karen Downs‑Barton’s debut /Minx/ (Chatto & Windus) was similarly eye-catching, unsparingly detailing both the poet’s time in the care system, and the wider discrimination she experienced coming from an Anglo-Romany background. Her use of Roma language in her poems adds an unexpected lushness to the often bleak content.’ ‘in /Foretokens/ (Chatto & Windus) Sarah Howe adds a bracing anger to her always elegant poems, giving them an unexpected fierceness.’ #chattopoetry #booksoftheyear2025 @chattobooks

i newspaper article. Did you know that November is National Care Leavers month? It wasn't well publicised but as an in-and-out resident of state childcare I was delighted to contribute this article to the i newspaper. I hope it goes some way to raising awareness of the changes taking place for young people in care and how simple innovations like Memory Boxes can provide a sense of belonging and ownership of their pasts. /author/karen-downs-barton?srsltid=AfmBOooz-w95FreVWLghXylg5qcnWQ59gibJ0rCkP0gRY2_lEigrAtY3 @theipaper @chattobooks @penguinukbooks @elise.dillsworth @luckyflowerhowe #NCLM #nclm25 #careexperienced