Ella McLeod

Writing Coach

The Branford Boase-nominated author of YA fiction and romantasy, including Guardian Best Books Pick The Map That Led to You.

Ella is passionate about writing on identity, particularly as it pertains to womanhood, blackness and queerness. She is currently working on her adult romantasy debut. With both of her YA novels weaving poetry with prose, Ella enjoys using the space between the two to express something close to the intangible.

When she is not writing, Ella produces podcasts and hosts Comfort Creatures on the Max Fun network, which offers light relief to animal lovers.

If you’re writing YA or romantasy, then Ella’s imaginative and perceptive insights will provide inspiration.

Ella’s Genres

Romantasy
Young Adult

‘Never forget that your voice is unique! If you don’t tell your story, no-one will. Stories are what connect us, they teach us empathy. Working to ensure that the world is not denied your words is an act of love.’

Ella McLeod

The Branford Boase-nominated author

Novels by

Ella McLeod

Rapunzella, Or, Don’t Touch My Hair

Rapunzella is imprisoned in a forest made of her own tangled Afro and the might of the pale King seems unstoppable. But is it? Can Rapunzella use her power to change the future?

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You’re 15, you spend your time at school and at Val’s hair salon with Baker, Val’s son, who has eyes that are like falling off a cliff into space. The salon is a space of safety, but also of possibility and dreams... Dreams of hair so rich and alive that it grows upward and outward into a wild landscape, becomes trees and leaves, and houses birds and butterflies and all the secret creatures that belong in such a forest.

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Is there a future where such possibility and power is more than just a dream?

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The Map That Led to You

A long time ago, a witch burst into flames. A pirate and a mermaid fell in love. A map was marked with a glowing X. And a Republic was born.

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In the present day, two girls are given a history assignment: to try and piece together the rise and fall of the famous and corrupt pirate Republic, which once formed their island home.

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As Reggie and Maeve sift fact from fiction, they realize that everything they’ve been told about the Republic is wrong. That the problem with history being told by the victors is that a lot gets left out. That ancient legend might be uncomfortably close to home. As their tentative friendship deepens into something more, they realize that a magical world could be on their very doorstep...

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