Jacob Ross

Jacob Ross FRSL (born 1956) is a Grenada-born poet, playwright, journalist, novelist, and creative writing tutor who has been based in the UK since 1984.

Life and career Jacob Ross was born in Hope Vale on the Caribbean island of Grenada, where he attended the Grenada Boys' Secondary School, later studying at the University of Grenoble, France. Since 1984, he has resided in Britain.

Ross has toured and lectured widely, including in Germany, Korea, the Middle East, and The Caribbean. In 2000, he was specially commissioned by the Peabody Trust to run the Millennium Writers Master class and in November that year became writer in residence for the London Borough of Streatham's Community Zone Literature Development Initiative. He was Writer-in-Residence at St. George's University in Grenada and the Darat Al Funun Arts Academy in Jordan in 2001. Song for Simone has been translated into several languages. Of Ross's second collection, A Way to Catch the Dust and Other Stories (1999), Bernardine Evaristo wrote in Wasafiri: "These stories are refined, timeless and startlingly beautiful and if Walcott is the poet laureate of the Caribbean Sea then with this collection, Ross becomes a major contender as its chief prose stylist.... Ross, following in the tradition of Hemingway and Morrison, displays all the brilliance of a great storyteller in action."

His first novel, Pynter Bender, was published in 2008. It was shortlisted for 2009's Commonwealth Writers' Prize, the Society of Authors' "Best First Novel" and the Caribbean Review of Books "Book of the Year".

Awards and recognition 2006: Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature 2017: Jhalak Prize for Book of the Year by a Writer of Colour for The Bone Readers. 2022: Runner-up German Crime Fiction Prize (Deutscher Krimi Preis), International Category (2nd Place) https://www.librarything.com/award/1021.0.0.2022/German-Crime-Fiction-Prize-2022

Selected writings and editorial work Song for Simone and Other Stories (London: Karia Press, 1986; ) Behind the Masquerade: The Story of Notting Hill Carnival (with Kwesi Owusu) (Arts Media Group, 1988; ) Voice, Memory, Ashes: Lest We Forget (co-edited with Dr Joan Anim-Addo) (London: Mango Publishing, 1998; ) A Way to Catch the Dust and Other Stories (London: Mango Publishing, 1999; ) Ridin' n Risin: Short stories by new black writers (Black Inc) and Turf (co-edited with Andrea Enisuoh) Closure: Contemporary Black British Short Stories (Peepal Tree Press, 2015; edited by Jeremy Poynting and Jacob Ross; ) Tell No-One About This (Peepal Tree Press, 2017) The Peepal Tree Book of Contemporary Caribbean Short Stories (Peepal Tree Press, 2018; ) Pynter Bender (Harper Perennial, 2008; ) The Bone Readers (Peepal Tree Press, 2016; ) Black Rain Falling (London: Hachette, 2020; ) Weighted Words, An Anthology of Creative Writing (Peepal Tree Press, Readers and Writers Series 2021) Sanctuary, An Anthology of Creative Writing (Peepal Tree Press, 2024; )