The start of a great day organising the delegates for a colloquium / conference I am heading… and it starts with cardamom coffee from the Algerian Coffee store in Soho. I’m wearing my non-poetic hat. It isn’t quite a comfy fit but perhaps I’ll grow into it with a bit of readjusting. However, I’m busy wondering how many poets out there are fuelled by this bean and seed mix right now, right this moment. Do they have special glasses of coloured glass, gold filigree running spun around and all devices on flight mode? Does it flavour their conversation with something spicy, dark? Perhaps I’ll never find the answer to these liquid questions but it’s certainly a fab way to distract from meetings… just for the length of drinking a delicious coffee from an inappropriate receptacle in the midsts of university strike week.
Karen Downs-Barton is an award winning poet. Minx, her first collection, is published by Chatto and Windus, Penguin Random House in March 2025. Her pamphlet, Didicoy, won the 2022 International Book and Pamphlet Competition and was the Poetry Book Society recommended pamphlet 2023. Her writing incorporates experimental form and multilingualism alongside lyric pieces exploring an Angloromani heritage, times in state child care, and in diverse occupations including a magician's assistant. Karen has appeared on BBC Radio 4's The Verb, Ledbury Literature Festival, and is currently touring, promoting Minx. Karen gained a Doctorate in Creative Writing from King's College, London and is a regular workshop facilitator for Creative Future UK. Follow her on social media at: @downsbarton Instagram, @karendownsbarton.bsky.social
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Karen Downs-Barton 