Leone Ross

Leone Ross (born 26 June 1969, Coventry, England)[1] is a novelist, short story writer, editor, journalist and academic of Jamaican and Scottish ancestry.[2]

Biography

Ross was born in Coventry, UK, and when she was six years old migrated with her mother to Jamaica, where Leone was raised and educated. After graduating from the University of the West Indies in 1990, Ross returned to England to do her Master's Degree in International Journalism at City University, in London, where she now lives.[3] Her first novel, All The Blood Is Red was published by Angela Royal Publishing in 1996. It was short-listed for the Orange Prize in 1997. Her second critically acclaimed novel, Orange Laughter was published in the UK by Anchor Press, in the USA by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Picador and in France by Actes Sud.

In 2000 Ross was a recipient of a London Arts Board Writers Award. She has represented the British Council in the USA, South Korea, Slovakia, Romania, Sweden and across the UK.

In September 2004, Ross was chosen as one of fifty Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to contemporary British literature, appearing in the historic "A Great Day in London" photograph taken at the British Library.[4][5]

In 2010 Wasafiri magazine placed Orange Laughter on its 25 Most Influential Books list.

Ross has worked at Cardiff University, Trinity College Dublin, the City Literary Institute and the Arvon Foundation, and is Senior Lecturer in the Creative Writing department at Roehampton University in London.

Her short fiction and essays have been widely anthologised, including the Brown Sugar erotica series, which zoomed to number three on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller's List. Other US collections include Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora and The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (14th Edition). In 2000, she co-edited the award-winning Whispers in The Walls: New Black and Asian Writing from Birmingham. Her most recent publications are in Best British Short Stories 2011 (Salt Publishing, ed. Nicholas Royle) and Kingston Noir (Akashic Books, ed. Colin Channer).

Prior to publication of her books, Ross worked as a journalist and editor for 14 years. She held the post of Arts Editor at The Voice newspaper, Women’s Editor at the New Nation newspaper, and was transitional Editor for Pride magazine in the UK. She also held the position of Deputy Editor at Sibyl, a feminist magazine. She has freelanced for The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian as well as London Weekend Television and the BBC.[3]

Ross has written novels and short stories in speculative fiction, erotica, and Caribbean fiction genres.

Works

Novels
Short stories
Non-Fiction
Poetry

Awards

References

  1. ↑ "Leone Ross", British Council: Literature (last visited August 6, 2012).
  2. ↑ Petra Tournay, "Gender and ethnicity in the body politics of everyday life: Leone Ross's All the Blood is Red", Interactions, 22 March 2007.]
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 A Brief Biography - "Leone Ross", Literature of the Caribbean, PostColonialWeb.org.
  4. ↑ Andrea Levy, "Made in Britain. To celebrate the impact of their different perspectives, 50 writers of Caribbean, Asian and African descent gathered to be photographed. Andrea Levy reports on a great day for literature", The Guardian, 18 September 2004.
  5. ↑ Kevin Le Gendre, "Books: A great day for a family get together Who are the movers and shakers in black British writing? And can they all fit on one staircase?", The Independent on Sunday, 17 October 2004.

External links