After college Ms. Gross moved to San Francisco, then San Diego, and worked in publishing, as well as performing with the San Diego Opera Chorus. Through the San Diego Writing Center, she was selected for the PEN West Emerging Writers Program.

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Ms. Gross received an M.F.A. in fiction and poetry from Sarah Lawrence College. Her poems have been published in dozens of literary magazines, including Salt Hill Journal, Global City Review, The Laurel Review, and Hubbub, where her poem was selected for the 1999 Adrienne Lee Award.

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Her first novel, Field Guide, was issued by Henry Holt in 2001 (Harvest paperback 2002), and her second, Getting Out, in 2002. These two women's adventure fiction novels received critical acclaim. Ms. Gross then shifted her focus to the dramas of motherhood and sisterhood with The Other Mother (Random House, 2007) and The Orphan Sister (Simon and Schuster, 2011).

 

Gwendolen Gross' newest novel, When She Was Gone (Simon and Schuster 2013), explores coming of age in the shadows of a suburban life, and what is revealed when the light suddenly shines in.

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Ms. Gross is also an award-winning writing instructor and has led workshops at Sarah Lawrence College and the UCLA Extension online. Her guest lectures include appearances at the Fashion Institute of Technology, at Barnes and Noble's Educator's Night, and The World's Largest Writing Workshop. Ms. Gross has worked as a snake and kinkajou demonstrator, naturalist, opera singer, editor, and mom. She lives in northern New Jersey with her family.

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Gwendolen Gross is listed in University of Pennsylvania's Celebration of Women Writers, is featured as a New Jersey writer in "Jersey Blogs," and included in the Arts: Literature: World Literature: American: 21st Century section of the Open Directory Project (DMOZ), Library of Congress, Simon and Schuster, Random House, the UCLA Extension Writers Program.