Leone Ross | |
|---|---|
 Ross leads a 2022 discussion for the British Library | |
| Born | 26 June 1969 Coventry, England |
| Occupation | Novelist, short story writer, editor, journalist and academic |
| Alma mater | University of the West Indies; City University |
| Notable works | This One Sky Day (2021) |
| Website | |
| www | |
Leone Ross FRSL (born 26 June 1969)[1] is a British novelist, short story writer, editor, journalist and academic, who is of Jamaican and Scottish ancestry.[2][3]
Leone Ross was born in Coventry, England. When she was six years old, Ross migrated with her mother to Jamaica, where she 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.[4]
Her first novel, All The Blood Is Red, was published by Angela Royal Publishing in 1996. It was nominated for the Orange Prize in 1997.[5] Her second novel, Orange Laughter, was published in the UK by Anchor Press, in the United States by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Picador, and in France by Actes Sud. Ross's first short-story collection, Come Let Us Sing Anyway, published in 2017 (Peepal Tree Press), was widely acclaimed. Maggie Gee in The Times Literary Supplement characterised Ross as "a pointilliste, a master of detail",[6] and in a review for The Guardian, Bernardine Evaristo described the collection as "remarkable" and "outrageously funny", saying: "Ross writes here with searing empathy and compassion. ...The effect is mesmerising, shocking, unforgettable".[7] The book was described on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read as "incredibly rare, extraordinary".
In 2009, Wasafiri magazine placed Ross's second novel, Orange Laughter, on its list of 25 Most Influential Books from the previous quarter-century.[8] Come Let Us Sing Anyway was nominated for the V.S. Pritchett Prize, Salt Publishing's Scott Prize, the Jhalak Prize and was shortlisted for the 2018 Edge Hill Prize. It was named runner-up Best Collection in the public-voted Saboteur Awards. In 2000, Ross was a recipient of a London Arts Board Writers Award. She has represented the British Council in the United States, South Korea, Slovakia, Romania, Sweden, and across the UK.
In September 2004, Ross was chosen as one of 50 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.[9][10]
Her short fiction and essays have been widely anthologised, including in the Brown Sugar erotica series, which zoomed to number three on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller List. Other US collections featuring her work 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. In 2021, she will edit a speculative fiction anthology, by Black British writers, for Peepal Tree Press.[11]
Prior to the 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 for London Weekend Television and the BBC.[4]
Ross writes novels and short stories in speculative fiction, erotica, and Caribbean fiction genres. In 2015, she judged the Manchester Fiction Prize, alongside Stuart Kelly.[12] She has judged the Spread the Word London Short Story Prize with agent Emma Paterson, the V. S. Pritchett Award (twice) with novelist Candice Carty-Williams and Philip Hensher, the Mslexia Short Fiction award with novelist Sunny Singh, and for several years, the Wimbledon Bookfest Competition.
Ross is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby,[13] and the 2020 anthology Outsiders edited by Alice Slater.[14] In 2021, Ross released This One Sky Day and—during an interview in which she discussed her novel—Ross revealed that she is bisexual and that she "...often felt like I'm sitting in the middle...".[3] Described as "an exuberant work of magical realism that was 15 years in the making",[15] This One Sky Day was shortlisted for the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize[16] and was included on the longlist for the 2022 Women's Prize for Fiction.[17][18]
Ross has worked at Cardiff University, Trinity College Dublin, the City Literary Institute and the Arvon Foundation, and was Senior Lecturer in the Creative Writing department at Roehampton University in London, where she was Anthology Editor for their micro-publishing house, Fincham Press. She is a Senior Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy.[19]
In 2023, Ross was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.[20]
This One Sky Day (2021)
Come Let Us Sing Anyway (2017)
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