Leone Ross
Biography
Leone Ross was born in Coventry, England, in 1969 and moved to Jamaica with her mother at age six, where she was raised and educated. She graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1990 before returning to England to study International Journalism at City University in London. She began working as a journalist as a teenager and later held editorial positions in British publications. Ross has described herself as English, Jamaican, mixed-race, and bisexual, and has spoken about the influence of both her Jamaican upbringing and Scottish heritage on her identity and writing.
Ross published her debut novel, All the Blood Is Red, in 1996, followed by Orange Laughter in 1999. Her first short-story collection, Come Let Us Sing Anyway, was published by Peepal Tree Press in 2017 and received multiple literary prize nominations. Her third novel, This One Sky Day, was published by Faber & Faber in 2021 and also published in the United States as Popisho. In 2022, she edited Glimpse: A Black British Anthology of Speculative Fiction and won the Manchester Fiction Prize for her short story “When We Went Gallivanting.”
Ross has taught creative writing for more than two decades and has worked with institutions including Cardiff University, Trinity College Dublin, the City Literary Institute, and Roehampton University. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.
BQW Impact
Ross's literary contribution is significant to BQW because her fiction places Black, Caribbean, mixed-race, and bisexual experiences within complex imaginative worlds rather than treating identity as a peripheral subject. Her writing engages with race, sexuality, gender, childhood, cultural belonging, and the continuing influence of Jamaica on diasporic identity.
Her work as a novelist, short story writer, editor, and educator has also contributed to the visibility of Black British and Caribbean literary voices. Her editorship of Glimpse, an anthology of Black British speculative fiction, extends that contribution beyond her own fiction by creating space for other Black British writers working in speculative forms.
Notable Works
All the Blood Is Red (1996)
Ross's debut novel, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Orange Laughter (1999)
Ross's second novel, which was selected as a BBC Radio 4 Women's Hour Watershed Fiction favorite.
Come Let Us Sing Anyway (2017)
A collection of short fiction exploring relationships, sexuality, race, gender, and Jamaican identity through magical realism, horror, erotica, and other literary forms.
This One Sky Day (2021)
A speculative novel set on the fictional Caribbean island of Popisho and also published in the United States as Popisho.
Glimpse: A Black British Anthology of Speculative Fiction (2022)
An anthology edited by Ross bringing together speculative fiction by Black British writers.
“When We Went Gallivanting” (2021)
The short story that won the Manchester Fiction Prize.
Learn More
Institutional profile documenting Ross's literary career and 2023 election as an RSL Fellow.
Publisher profile covering Ross's fiction, editing, teaching, and literary career.
Creator-specific interview exploring Ross's writing practice and Popisho.
Ross's Instagram account, identified in publisher materials.