Ross McCleary

Ross McCleary is a fiction writer, poet, and spoken-word performer from Edinburgh, Scotland. His work has been published in 404 Ink, Structo, Riddled with Arrows, Litro and a number of other places.

In 2019, the Scottish Book Trust awarded Ross a New Writer’s Award for Fiction. A novella, Portrait of the Artist as a Viable Alternative to Death, was published by Maudlin House in 2016. It was described as “yowlingly funny and wrenchingly tragic” by Rachel McCrum; “frequently reach[es] astonishing places” by Martin MacInnes; and “exhaustingly
beautiful” by Ross Sutherland.

Ross is also half of the Inky Fingers team, a monthly spoken-word open-mic night, and he organises, books, and writes events with Andrew Blair under the name Poetry As Fuck. Their work includes a Saboteur Award shortlisted show called The Ambassador’s Reception (co-produced with Interrobang), the Wikipedia Slam (which was featured on the Janice Forsythe show) and the Slaminals of Farthing Wood. He also produces Lies, Dreaming, which is a quarterly submission-driven poetry podcast with a theme.