Orna Ross: Short bio
Orna Ross is an award-winning Irish novelist and poet and founder and co-director of the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi).
An international bestseller, her writing awards include the Goethe Grand Prize for Historical Fiction and the Gold Literary Titan award for poetry, and she has been named one of the Top 100 People in Publishing for her work with ALLi.
Orna Ross: Medium Bio
Orna Ross (born Aine McCarthy, 1960) is an award-winning Irish novelist and poet.An international bestseller, her writing awards include the Goethe Grand Prize for Historical Fiction and the Gold Literary Titan award for poetry.
A strong educational background, and a desire to help other authors achieve their creative potential in writing and in publishing, led her to found the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), the professional association for self-publishing authors,
Ross is a passionate promoter of creative writing and publishing as forms of artistic expression, as personal development tools, and as a viable business option for authors. “One of the rising stars in the indie world” (The Guardian) she has repeatedly been named one of the Top 100 People in Publishing by The Bookseller, the organ of the British publishing industry, for her work with ALLi.
As a novelist she writes mostly historical fiction, often cross-generational, with an Irish setting. She also writes poetry and non-fiction guides for authors.
She was born and raised in Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland, and now lives in St Leonard's on Sea, in the south-east of England, within working reach of London.
Her motto is: “When in doubt, be braver.”
Long Bio
Orna Ross
Born: 1 April 1960
Nationality: Irish (Now lives in London & St Leonard’s On Sea)
The work of this bestselling and award-winning Irish author, with a strong educational background–“one of the rising stars in the indie world” (The Guardian)–is defined by her desire to empower other authors to achieve their creative potential — in writing and in publishing.
Ross’s writing achievements have gone hand in hand with a career in media, academia and publishing. With a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and a Master’s Degree in Women’s Studies, both from University College Dublin (UCD), she has previously worked as a freelance journalist, writing facilitator, literary agent and lecturer in culture and creativity studies at the Women’s Studies Centre (then known as WERRC) at UCD.
During her time there, Ross devised the Creative and Imaginative Practice course that later formed the basis of her Go Creative book series.
She has taught the principles and practices of creativity and creativism in a great variety of settings, from university lecture theaters to to community halls, from publishing conferences to virtual, online mentoring.
Ross has always supported other writers in their progress, whether in her capacity as a lecturer at UCD, or as head of the non-profit association, the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi), which she founded in 2012.
As a novelist she writes mostly historical fiction, often cross-generational, with an Irish setting. She also writes poetry and non-fiction guides for authors.
Her publishing has had two distinct phases: first with third-party publishers, then as a self-published author. She published non-fiction guides for women with Attic Press in Dublin (Bodymatters for Women, 1989; Get Up & Go: A Travel Guide For Women, 1992) and fiction with Penguin Books (Lover’s Hollow, 2006; A Dance in Time 2008).
After a hiatus due to cancer treatment and emigration, in 2011 Ross made a break from the world of traditional publishing and leveraged the power of the digital era by taking her rights back from Penguin to self-publish her novels as she had originally envisaged them.
Her first novel has now developed into a trilogy: The Irish Trilogy incorporating I: After the Rising (2012); II: Before the Fall (2013); and III: In the Hour (forthcoming 2025).
She has published two further novels, Blue Mercy (2013) and Her Secret Rose (2015) and collaborated with six other female writers to create a book box set: Outside the Box: Women Writing Women (2014), which featured Blue Mercy.
In addition to her fiction, she has written and edited non-fiction guides for writers and published a number of poetry books (see publications list below).
She also runs a popular blog and podcast for the Alliance of Independent Authors’: The Self-Publishing Advice Blog and a annual online writers' conference since 2014.
In addition to Ross’s writing, she also leads the Alliance for Independent Authors (ALLi). Ross launched ALLi in 2012 as a not-for-profit organisation that seeks to protect self-publishing writers’ rights, and promote and develop the self-publishing sector.
In her role, as the head of ALLi, Ross and her team have advised many authors and other organizations, including the BBC on publishing costs for independent authors.
Creativism
While Ross both writes and publishes, her game-changing work lies in the development of the creativist movement. For Ross, creativism is the application of the creative process to everyday aspects of life like work, relationships and money. She takes care to separate such creativism from our ordinary understanding of creativity, which is closely aligned with the liberal arts.
Creativism requires an experimental and exploratory attitude, a tolerance of creative anxiety and failure and an understanding of the seven stages of the creative process, together with the skills and mind modes needed in each stage — and how to cultivate them. With these skills in place, Ross contends, anyone can create anything they truly want.
The first book of the Go Creative! Series, How to Create Anything (2017) explores the seven stages in depth, and is followed by a series of books, and what she calls work-rest-playbooks, that enable anyone who wants to own, and hone, their creative capacity.
Inspirations
The Irish Family: Ross’s homeland, Ireland, features strongly in her works and she draws on the cross-generational and gender conflicts of family life for inspiration. F-r-e-e-writing: From her time at University College Dublin (UCD) to the present, Ross has been driven by her deep interest in the written word as an agent for healing and transformation, for self and others.
WB Yeats: The Irish poet “made me want to be a writer,” Ross says.
The Sea: “Everything I needed to know I could have learned by watching the waves,” she says. She grew up close to the sea in Wexford and is delighted to have, in 2017, added life in St Leonard’s On Sea to her London life.
More: She further cites her inspirations on her website as history, gender and other writers and conscious creators.
Publication History
Ross has enjoyed being a published author, by feminist publishing house, Attic Press, and corporate publisher, Penguin, but mostly under her own steam, as a self-published author.
PUBLICATIONS LIST
https://ornaross.com/my-books/