Rose Inserra arrived in Australia from Italy when she was nine years old. After graduating from Monash University she taught English and Italian as a secondary school teacher before becoming a freelance journalist. Inserra has written children's picture books, as well as readers and information books for children, which are published by leading educational publishers.
In 1998, Inserra was author-in-residence at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, where she offered writing workshops to seriously ill teenagers. Inserra frequently visited schools and has taught children's writing to adults.
Inserra has been a member of several writing organisations, including the Australian Society of Authors, the Fellowship of Australian Writers and the Victorian Writers' Centre. She has also been the editor of the Society of Children's Writers and Book Illustrators.