Media Kit: Bios

Orna Ross Media Kit: Short bio

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Orna Ross Media Kit: Medium Bio

Orna Ross is an internationally bestselling novelist and poet with a research interest in creative and imaginative practice. 

Her writing awards include the Goethe Grand Prize for Historical Fiction (2021) and a Gold Literary Titan award for poetry (2022).

In 2009, while undergoing breast cancer treatment, Ross coined the term "creativism" to expand the concept of creativity beyond the arts, and encourage the use of creative thinking and tools to improve every aspect of daily life. This led to her Go Creative! Non-fiction series, which explores the theory and practice of creativism, the application of the creative process to everything in life.

Ross is also a passionate promoter of creative writing and publishing as forms of artistic expression and personal development tools for all. And of self-publishing as a viable business model for entrepreneurial authors who acquire publishing skills. 

A desire to help other authors achieve their creative potential in publishing as well as writing led her to found the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), a global professional association for self-publishing authors, in 2012. Her non-fiction works also include definitive self-publishing guides for authors in association with the ALLi. 

In 2026, seeing the practical challenges authors face in implementing publishing advice, she founded the Indie Author Lab, a creative development program for writers, in association with ALLi, the London Book Fair (UK) and Author Nation (US). 

She runs Indie Author Lab Online through her popular Substack.

As a novelist Ross writes historical fiction, often cross-generational, about hidden aspects of Ireland, particularly the lives of women. 

She also writes and publishes poetry books, including her popular gift series for special occasions. 

Born and raised in Wexford, in the south-east of Ireland, she now lives in St Leonard's on Sea, in the south-east of England, within working reach of London. Browse and buy her books at OrnaRoss.com/Books and follow her on Substack

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Orna Ross Media Kit: Long Bio

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 others to achieve their creative potential — in writing, in publishing, and in life.

Orna 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, she has previously worked as a freelance journalist, creative writing tutor, literary agent, and lecturer in culture and creativity studies at her alma mater, University College Dublin (UCD).

During her time at UCD, Ross devised the postgraduate “Creative and Imaginative Practice” course that later formed the basis of her Go Creative! books. She has taught creativity and creativism in a great variety of settings, from university lecture theatres to community halls, from publishing conferences to online webinars. And facilitated people in every life situation, from asylum seekers to captains of industry, from women recovering from drug dependencies to internationally-renowned creatives.

Her novels are multi-layered, historical, cross-generational family dramas, full of mystery and intrigue, and blending Irish and international settings. 

Her poetry books are lyrical companions for creative minds. 

Ross also writes non-fiction creative guides for authors and others and is founder of the nonprofit Alliance of Independent Authors (2012) and Indie Author Lab (2026), a creative development program for writers  in association with ALLi, the London Book Fair and Author Nation. 

Her writing life has had two distinct phases: first with third-party publishers, then as a self-published author. Her first books were feminist guidebooks issued by Attic Press in Dublin (Bodymatters for Women, 1989; Get Up & Go: A Travel Guide For Women, 1992) and fiction with Penguin Ireland (Lover’s Hollow, 2006; A Dance in Time 2008). After a cancer diagnosis and subsequent move to London from Dublin, Ross left the world of traditional media and publishing, starting her own blog and taking her publishing rights back from Penguin. She describes this as “the best move of her publishing life.”

Her first novel is now being developed into a trilogy: The Irish Trilogy incorporating I: After the Rising (2012); II: Before the Fall (2013); and III: In the Hour (forthcoming) and she has published two further novels, Blue Mercy (2013) and Her Secret Rose (2015) and collaborated with six other women writers to create a book box-set: Outside the Box: Women Writing Women (2014).

Ross has always supported other creatives in their progress, whether in her capacity as a lecturer at UCD, or as head of ALLi, which advocates for indie authors’ rights and interests, oversees the self-publishing sector, and provides a suite of member resources to help writers to publish well and build a readership. The ALLi team has advised many authors, companies, organisations, and media outlets about independent author-publishing.

She is currently working on a fiction series about Maud Gonne and WB Yeats and A Crowd of Stars, a book of the poetry of WB Yeats, inspired by Maud Gonne, with commentary by the muse. She also helped to found the Maud Gonne Society.

Browse and buy her books at OrnaRoss.com and new work releases first on Substack.