Born in Parry Sound, Mary Barnes is of Ojibway descent, and had her debut poetry collection, What Fox Knew, published in 2019. It was longlisted for the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award and shortlisted for the Manitoba Books Award for book design. Her second book, Moving Upstream, was released in the spring of 2023. Recently, the book won the Jane and H. H. Egbert-Rodden Poetry Award for 2025.