Leone Ross

Ross has worked at Cardiff University, as British Fellow at Trinity College Dublin, in adult education at the City Literary Institute London and with the UK Arvon Foundation. She is presently Senior Lecturer in the Creative Writing department at Roehampton University in London. Leone Ross's most recent publication is Come Let Us Sing Anyway. She also contributed the story 'The Mullerian Eminence' in Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (Peepal Tree Press/Inscribe, 2015) and recently released the limited edition chapbook, The Woman Who Lived in A Restaurant (Nightjar Press, 2015). She has also published an essay, 'How To Write Weird Shit/Magic Realism' in The Art of the Novel, edited by Nicholas Royle (Salt, 2015). 

Ross's short fiction and essays have been widely anthologised, including the Brown Sugar erotica series (Dutton/Plume) which zoomed to number three on the Los Angeles Times Bestseller's List. Other US collections include The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (St Martin's Press 2001) and Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora (Warner 2000) which was named the New York Times Notable Book 2000, the Washington Post Editor's Choice 2001 and the US Black Writers Alliance Gold Pen Award Winner for Best Anthology. She has also published short fiction in Australia and Slovakia, and 2013, her short story collection, Lipstick, Lighters, Pens & Porn (now Come Let Us Sing Anyway) was shortlisted for Salt Publishing's Scott Prize. 

Ross co-edited the award-winning Whispers in the Walls: New Black and Asian Writing from Birmingham (Tindal Street Press, 2002)​. The collection was placed in the World Book Day Top Ten 2003 and won a West Midlands Arts Diversity award. She is commissioning editor for Roehampton University's imprint, Fincham Press, where she is working on her fourth anthology (previous titles are The Trouble With Parallel Universes, Screams & Silences and Purple Lights).

Prior to publishing fiction, 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. She also held the position of Deputy Editor at Sibyl, a feminist magazine. She has written freelance articles for The Independent on Sunday and The Guardian newspapers, Company and Marie Claire magazines and worked for London Weekend Television and the BBC.

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