Leone Ross

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

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. 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.

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). Upcoming publications include short story ‘The Mullerian Eminence’ in Closure (ed Jacob Ross, Peepal Tree Press), ‘How To Write Weird Shit/On Magic Realism’ in The Art of the Novel (ed Nicholas Royle, Salt, 2016), and ‘Minty Minty’ in McSweeneys (ed Marlon James). ‘The Woman Who Lived in A Restaurant’ will be published as a special, limited-edition chapbook by Nightjar Press in October 2015.

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.

Ross has written novels and short stories in speculative fiction, erotica, and Caribbean fiction genres. In 2015, Ross judges the Manchester Fiction Prize, alongside Stuart Kelly.

Works

Novels

• This One Sky Day (due 2016)
• Orange Laughter (Picador USA 2001; Actes Sud, France 2001; Farrar Straus & Giroux, USA, 2000; Anchor Press, UK, 2000; Angela Royal Publishing, UK, 1999.)
• All The Blood Is Red (Actes Sud, France, 2002; Angela Royal Publishing, UK, 1996.)

Short stories

• “Minty Minty” in Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern, ed. Marlon James (McSweeneys, USA: San Francisco, Autumn 2016)
• “The Woman Who Lived In A Restaurant” as a limited edition chapbook, ed. Nicholas Royle (Nightjar Press, Autumn 2015)
• “The Mullerian Eminence” in Closure, ed Jacob Ross (Peepal Tree Press, UK: London, Autumn 2015)
• “Fix’ in The World To Come, ed. Om Dwivali (Australia: Melbourne, Spineless Wonders, July 2014)
• ‘Smile’ in Minuteman, 1st edition, ed. 12 (Awe&TheAbyss, April 2013) http://minutemanproject.tumblr.com/
• “Roll It” in Kingston Noir, ed. Colin Channer (Akashic Books: USA, May 2012)
• “Love Silk Food” in The Best British Short Stories 2011, ed. Nicholas Royle (UK: Salt Publishing, October 2011); Wasafari magazine, eds. Bernardine Evaristo and Karen McCarthy (USA, September 2010)
• “When The River” in Making The Hook Up: Edgy Sex with Soul, ed. Cole Riley (USA: Cleis Press, March 2010)
• “The Heart Has No Bones” in Incommunicado, eds. Romy Ashe and Tom Doig (Australia: Express Media, May 2006)
• “Breakfast Time” in Tell Tales, The Anthology of Short Stories, Vol. 2, eds. Rajeev Balasuramanyam and Courttia Newland (London: flipped eye, June 2005)
• “Breathing” in Spoonface: A Collection of Short Fiction, ed. Clem Cairns (Ireland: Fish Publishing, 2004)
• “President Daisy” in The Writer Fellow: An Anthology (Dublin: Oscar Wilde Centre at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, 2004)
• “Contract” in Brown Sugar 3, ed. Carol Taylor (USA: Simon & Schuster, July 2003)
• “Art, for Fuck’s Sake” in Brown Sugar 2, ed. Carol Taylor (USA: Simon & Schuster, December 2002)
• “Façade” in England Calling: 24 Stories for the 21st Century (UK: Weidenfeld Press, 2001); in Burning Words, Flaming Images, ed. Kadija Sesay (UK: SAKS Media, 1996)
• “Covenant” in Whispers in the Walls: Black and Asian Voices, eds. Leone Ross & Yvonne Brissett (UK: Tindal Street, 2001); in Obsidian III: Literature in the African Diaspora, ed. Kwame Dawes (USA: North Carolina State University Press, 2001)
• “Tasting Songs” reprinted in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror: 14th Annual Collection, ed. Ellen Datlow (USA: St. Martin’s Press, 2001); in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, ed. Sheree R. Thomas (Hardback; USA: Warner Books, July 2000; trade paperback, Aspect, July 2001)
• “Drag” in Brown Sugar: A Collection of Erotic Black Fiction, ed. Carol Taylor (USA: Dutton Plume, January 2001)
• “Mudman” in Time Out London Short Stories, Vol. II, ed. Nicholas Royle (USA & UK: Penguin, 2000)
• “And You Know This” in Wild Ways: Stories of Women on the Road, eds. Margo Daley and Jill Dawson (UK: Sceptre Press, 1997)
• “Phone Call to a Rape Crisis Centre” in Burning Words, Flaming Images, ed. Kadija Sesay (UK: SAKS Media, 1996)

Non-Fiction

• "How To Write Weird Shit” in The Art of the Novel, ed. Nicholas Royle (UK: Salt, 2016)
• Foreword to David I. Muir's The Real Rock: Pieces of Jamaica (Jamaica: 2012)
• "The People” in Discover Jamaica (UK: Insight Guides, 2000)
• How Many Storeys? The History of Housing Associations in the UK (as L. J. Ross) (UK: Ujima Housing Association, 2000)
• Afterword to Laurie Gunst’s Born Fi’ Dead: A Journey through the Yardie Posse Underworld (UK: Canongate, 1995)
• "Black Narcissus" in IC3: The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain, eds. Courttia Newland and Kadija Sesay (UK: Penguin, 2000)

Poetry

• Poetry (“Rooms”, “Ouch”, “Sex Myths”, “Incidents at 3 A.M.”) in Burning Words, Flaming Images, ed. Kadija Sesay (UK: SAKS Media, 1996)
• Poetry in Creation Fire: A CAFRA Anthology of Caribbean Women’s Poetry, ed. Ramabai Espinet (Canada: Sister Vision Press, October 1989)

Awards

• London Arts Board Writers Award (2000)

External links

• official website www.leoneross.com
• leoneross @ twitter
• leonerosswrites @ facebook
• TEDxBratislava talk @ youtube (June 16, 2011)