Rona Altrows was born and raised in Montreal and lives in Calgary. Both cities inform her writing. She writes fiction, essays, plays, and hybrid pieces. Her books include two collections of short stories, A Run on Hose (2006) and Key in Lock (2010) as well as a collection of fictional letters, At This Juncture (2018). In response to the 2013 Calgary flood, she wrote a children's book,The River Throws a Tantrum, to help the city's kids deal with their experiences and feelings. Her work has been published widely in magazines in Canada and the US, most recently in Queen's Quarterly and Isele Magazine.
Rona Altrows is also the editor of You Look Good for Your Age, an anthology on women, aging, and ageism. With Julie Sedivy she co-edited the anthology Waiting and with Naomi K. Lewis she co-edited Shy. The honours she has received over the years include the W.O. Mitchell Book Prize for A Run on Hose and the Jon Whyte Memorial Essay Award for the essay "Letter of Intent," which appears in Waiting.