Dawn Foster


Dawn Foster is a British journalist, broadcaster and author. She is a columnist for The Guardian newspaper, writing on housing inequality and austerity, and a staff writer for Jacobin magazine. She also contributes to the London Review of Books, Times Literary Supplement, The Independent, The Nation, Tribune, and Dissent in the United States.

Early life

Foster was born and raised in Newport, South Wales. In articles for Child Poverty Action Group and The Guardian she wrote that she grew up in poverty in an unemployed single-parent family, and was placed in the care system as a teenager.
She studied English Literature at Warwick University.
She suffers from epilepsy and schwannomatosis and has written about her disabilities.
Foster is a Catholic.

Books

Foster's first book, Lean Out, was published in January 2016 by Repeater Books. Her second book, Where Will We Live?, a commentary on the UK housing crisis, will be published by Repeater in 2019. Her biography in the London Review of Books says she is currently completing another book, a cultural history of the dole.

Awards and influence

Foster was awarded the International Building Press Prize for Young Journalist of the Year in 2014, was named Non-traditional Journalist of the Year at the inaugural Words by Women Awards, longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain's Social Evils in 2017, and shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award 2017.
In September 2017, Foster was listed at Number 82 in 'The 100 Most Influential People on the Left' by political commentator Iain Dale.

Controversies

In April 2019, Foster attracted controversy by naming the city of Bristol as one of the worst cities in the UK. Her statement attracted an outpouring of criticism by Bristolians.