Valerie Jacqueline Candida "Val" Ross (17 October 1950 – 17 February 2008) was a Canadian writer and winner of the 2004

Norma Fleck Award The Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction is a lucrative literary award founded in May 1999 by the Fleck Family Foundation and the Canadian Children's Book Centre, and presented to the year's best non-fiction book for a youth aud ...

for Canadian children's non-fiction. She was also a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

for the newspaper ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'', and won a

National Newspaper Award The National Newspaper Awards (french: link=no, Concours canadien de journalisme) are prizes awarded annually for the best work in Canadian newspapers. Synopsis The awards were first given in 1949 by the Toronto Press Club, which ran the awards un ...

in 1992 for critical writing.

Biography

Val Ross was born in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

in 1950, to Jack and Erma Ross, and had one younger brother, Philip ("Pip"). Val attended the Institute of Child Study, a progressive primary school operated by the University of Toronto. After completing high school at

Jarvis Collegiate Institute Jarvis Collegiate Institute is a high school in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is named after Jarvis Street where it is located. It is a part of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB). Prior to 1998, it was within the Toronto Board of Education (T ...

, she considered becoming a visual artist and studied at

St Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

. Eventually she graduated with a bachelor's degree from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

. Before establishing her career as a freelance writer, she worked in

urban planning Urban planning, also known as town planning, city planning, regional planning, or rural planning, is a technical and political process that is focused on the development and design of land use and the built environment, including air, water, ...

, tourism writing and as a broadcaster at CBC. She traveled extensively, developing her interests in community, culture and media. In the early 1970s she began studying Washin Ryu, a form of karate taught by Sensei Burt Konzak, attaining a brown belt. Val was also highly involved with several groups of women in the Toronto area that met frequently for recreational walks (The "Walking Women"). She wrote for ''

Chatelaine Chatelaine may refer to: * Chatelaine (chain), a set of short chains on a belt worn by women and men for carrying keys, thimble and/or sewing kit, etc. *Chatelaine (horse), a racehorse * ''Chatelaine'' (magazine), an English-language Canadian wom ...

'', '' Saturday Night'', and ''

Toronto Life ''Toronto Life'' is a monthly magazine about entertainment, politics and life in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. ''Toronto Life'' also publishes a number of annual special interest guides about the city, including ''Real Estate'', ''Stylebook'', ''Eatin ...

'', and then was hired as a staff writer and editor at ''

Maclean's ''Maclean's'', founded in 1905, is a Canadian news magazine reporting on Canadian issues such as politics, pop culture, and current events. Its founder, publisher John Bayne Maclean, established the magazine to provide a uniquely Canadian perspe ...

'', where she worked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She reported on the conflict in El Salvador, and became an important voice for human rights and freedom of expression. She spent the remainder of her career at ''

'', as a publishing reporter, as deputy editor of the Comment section, and as an arts reporter. She wrote two children's books, 2003's ''The Road to There'' and 2006's ''You Can't Read This''. The former, a history of

cartography Cartography (; from grc, χάρτης , "papyrus, sheet of paper, map"; and , "write") is the study and practice of making and using maps. Combining science, aesthetics and technique, cartography builds on the premise that reality (or an im ...

, won the $10,000

in 2004. ''You Can't Read This'' is a history of banned literature. Her final book, the posthumous ''Robertson Davies: A Portrait in Mosaic'', is an oral history of Canadian writer

Robertson Davies William Robertson Davies (28 August 1913 – 2 December 1995) was a Canadian novelist, playwright, critic, journalist, and professor. He was one of Canada's best known and most popular authors and one of its most distinguished " men of letters" ...

. She continued to work on the book even after being diagnosed with

brain cancer A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and secondar ...

on the day after her 57th birthday in 2007. She was married to Morton Ritts, and had three childre
Max Ritts, Madeleine Ritts, and Zoe Ritts
She died in

on 17 February 2008 of

Selected works

* 2003: ''The Road to There'' (

winner) (

Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award The Gelett Burgess Children's Book Award is an annual award presented by the Gelett Burgess Center for Creative Expression. Named for Gelett Burgess, an artist and writer famous for his humorous Goops series (1900-1950), this award recognizes out ...

Honors) * 2006: ''You Can't Read This'' * 2008: ''Robertson Davies: A Portrait in Mosaic'' (posthumous)

References

* Martin, Sandra.
Raw courage, strong convictions: She was a reporter's reporter
, ''

'', 2008-02-18, p. S11. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Val Deaths from brain tumor Canadian children's writers Canadian women non-fiction writers 1950 births 2008 deaths Deaths from cancer in Ontario Canadian women children's writers 20th-century Canadian journalists 20th-century Canadian women writers