Dilys Rose was born and brought up in Glasgow but Edinburgh has been her home for many years.  She has published three novels, five collections of stories and four of poetry, including one for young children. Her abiding interest in creative collaboration has led to, amongst other things, a song cycle, Watching Over You (2015), an opera libretto, Kaspar Hauser, Child of Europe (2010), and various collaborative publications including:Twinset, poems by Dilys Rose and Karen Knight with artwork by Polly Thelwall and Laurie Hastings (Knucker Press, 2008), and Once upon our time: new portrait miniatures: paintings by Moyna Flannigan and fictional cameos by Dilys Rose (National Galleries of Scotland Publications, 2004).

For nearly twenty years she taught creative writing at the Universities of Glasgow, Strathclyde and Edinburgh and is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Glasgow. Alongside writing, she has been developing her visual art practice. During the coronavirus pandemic she produced a series of collages and ink drawings which resulted in an online exhibition (September 2021). She divides her time between writing, art and family but hasn’t abandoned the possibility of seeing a bit more of the world, if and when circumstances allow.