Written by Michael Dean Clark
Looking at where Kathryn H. Ross is now—a memoir on the shelves, invitations to read and speak around the Southland, a monthly column, just to name a few of her accomplishments—one might be lulled into thinking that her life has gone to plan all along. In reality, her path to success began with the decision to leave her first university after experiencing hardship and exclusion.
“I actually transferred to APU in 2013 and had a pretty lonely college experience until I become fully immersed in the English program. Then I had friends, connections, and a community that I truly loved and that has lasted.”
Ross credits her community with forming a platform that first allowed her to explore and then excel at writing in various forms. And excel she has, most prominently with her 2019 memoir, Black Was Not a Label, published by Pronto. The collection of essays and poetry is, as she describes it, “a lamentation prayer to Father God. It is a meditation on love and desire, on feeling undesirable. It is a struggle between the realities of my past, the horrors of my ancestral history. It is a declaration of faith in the face of deep disappointments. It is a love letter to my body, my skin, my hair. It is my soul bound up in words.”
The project began as an essay Ross wrote as an undergraduate that was subsequently published. Later, when she returned to complete the Master’s in English at APU, that essay became the seed for a creative portfolio of four essays, all of which would be published independently before becoming the core of her memoir.
“Honestly, my most meaningful experience was my graduation from the MA program. That was such a culmination of the entire journey…. I came out better, smarter, more accomplished, and more confident in my calling, and I had sweet friends, amazing professors, and great experience on top of it all.”
Her memoir was also a next step in Ross’s impressive publishing track record, a process that began all the way back in 2013 when a short story she wrote was published in APU’s literary magazine, The West Wind.
Since then, she has consistently placed stories, essays, and poems in a wide variety of outlets, all of which can be found one her website, Speak the Write Language. Ross views and pursues her art as an expression of her faith, a perspective she first encountered in an undergraduate Christian Life Faith, and Ministry course at APU.
“In fact, those who create and make art are actually living out the Lord's purest calling because He is first introduced as our creator. So those who create, like me creating stories and poems and all that, have been given a spiritual vocation and calling - we are created to create.”
After her memoir’s publication, Ross had planned a mini-reading tour at bookstores in and around the Los Angeles area, but the onset of the pandemic scuttled those plans…at least in the physical sense. But, as most of the country turned to virtual conferences to carry on their work, so too did Ross, utilizing her social media accounts and connections with places like L.A.’s Skylight Books to find digital audiences. This process also led to her being invited to present a virtual visiting lecture at the Center for Ray Bradbury Studies, a particular honor given that Bradbury is one of the formative influences on her work.
Along with promoting her book, Ross has spent the last two years building her freelance writing, editing, and consulting business, CreatedtoCreate. That work includes a monthly column for Pasadena Now, partnering with writers to help them turn their ideas into audience-ready manuscripts, and ghost writing projects with other authors. Ross also credits the lessons she learned in school with her approach to business.
“APU showed me the power of community in creativity, about writer's groups and trusting others with your work to make that work better…. My work has been championed by friends and professors. I've been shown and taught the importance of keeping the Lord at the forefront of everything, even the seemingly mundane moments of business and networking.” And many of those lessons came from her interactions with faculty outside of the classroom.
“They see me and genuinely care for me. Whenever I publish something they read and share it. They care about what's going on in my life. They text me to say hello. I consider all of my former professors friends and still hold them in extremely high regard.”
Ross also now views them as colleagues, given that she recently began teaching professional writing and literature courses as an adjunct instructor in the very English department where her journey began. In her role as an educator, as well as in her writing and other professional endeavors, Ross strives to impart the same lessons she values from her own Christian education.
“I want to be someone people can trust, someone people can talk to. I want to be a source to Jesus and I think the best way of doing that is being kind, approachable, honest, ethical, and genuine. I also write a lot about Jesus and my faith in my work, creative, academic, or personal. it's a major influence for me because Christ and my relationship with Him is such a major part of who I am.”
