Best Selling Author

My Story

AUTHOR. ADVOCATE. HEALER.

Tara Rae Moss is a keynote speaker, award-winning advocate, bestselling author of 14 books of fiction and non-fiction, and a holistic practitioner.

Since 1999 Tara Rae has written 14 bestselling books under the name Tara Moss, published in 19 countries and 13 languages, including advocacy handbook for women and girls Speaking Out, her #1 non-fiction bestselling memoir The Fictional Woman, and the internationally bestselling postwar historical crime novels The War Widow and The Ghosts of Paris featuring PI Billie Walker and her disabled war vet assistant Samuel Baker. The War Widow by Tara Moss launches in the UK for the first time in March, 2024 with Verve Books.

Her most recent short stories are The Husband Machine, published in Black Is The Night, a tribute to noir master Cornell Woolrich, and The Immortality Project, a ‘poignant work of speculative fiction’ published in Meanjin Quarterly, and her recent writing appears in Ms Magazine, CrimeReads and The Age. An experienced documentary host and interviewer with a passion for research and human stories, Moss hosted the true crime documentary series Tough Nuts – Australia’s Hardest Criminals for two seasons the Crime & Investigation Network and Amazon Prime, Tara Moss Investigates on the National Geographic Channel and the author interview show Tara in Conversation on 13th Street Universal.  She was also the host, co-executive producer and co-writer of Cyberhate with Tara Moss on Australia’s ABC, examining the phenomenon of online abuse, and most recently a reporter and host of the true crime podcast, The Man in The Balaclava, for Audible. 

She is an outspoken advocate for human rights and the rights of women and children, and this focus informs all of her work. She has been a UNICEF Australia Goodwill Ambassador since 2007 and in 2014 she was recognised for Outstanding Advocacy for her blog Manus Island: An insider’s report, which helped to break information to the public about the alleged murder of Reza Barati inside the Australian-run Manus Island Immigration Detention Centre. In 2018 she was named one of the Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life, along with Angelina Jolie, His Holiness The Dalai Lama and more.

Tara Rae lives with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) – a rare disease marked by constant burning pain which rates on the McGill Pain Scale as more painful than childbirth or amputation of a digit. Despite being told by multiple doctors that she would never recover, she was able to get her condition into complete remission in 2023 after nearly 8 years of debilitating pain that impacted all aspects of her being, including her mobility, causing her to require a wheelchair. Now healed, she brings a strong message of hope and possibility, and advocates for the need to improve treatment and support, and integrate multidisciplinary care and complementary therapies to treat the whole person. Her advocacy has had significant impact – In 2020 she accepted the honorary role of Pain Champion with Pain Australia and in 2021 she was chosen as a Global Change Maker by Conscious Being magazine for her disability and chronic pain activism. She is a 2022 recipient of the Honorary Citizen Award for the City of Victoria for her work on accessibility rights. In 2023 she was the Canadian Pain Society‘s first ever Pain Champion, and spoke at their annual scientific meeting in Banff, in front of over 500 luminaries in pain research and treatment. 

Tara Rae – or Rae, as she is also known – is a mother, a wife and a dual Canadian/Australian citizen, and currently resides in her hometown of Victoria, BC, the unceded territory of the Lkwungen speaking people, and the Songhees, Esquimalt, and WSÁNEC First Nations, where she is a recipient of both the Order of Lambrick Park, and the Honorary Citizen Award, the highest formal honour awarded by the City of Victoria.  She works as an author, advocate, public speaker and healer, as a certified Holistic practitioner, Reiki Practitioner, Shamanic Practitioner, and Funeral Celebrant, supporting her local community.

Recent Awards and Accolades:

  

2014 Outstanding Advocacy Award for Manus Island: An insider’s report

 

2014 Cosmo’s The Women Who Made 2014 Better for The Fictional Woman

 

2014 Influential Women of 2014, alongside Malala, Laura Bates, Angelina Jolie and more

 

2014 The Hoopla‘s The Female Eunuch Award for The Fictional Woman

 

2015 Best Designed Non-Fiction Book Award, for The Fictional Woman designed by Tara Moss and Matt Stanton

 

2015 Part of the University of Sydney’s Leadership for Good

 

2015 Edna Ryan Award – ‘Grand Stirrer Award’ for making a feminist difference by speaking out for women and children, for a significant contribution to feminist debate and inciting others to challenge the status quo.

 

2016 Champion of the West award for community service

 

2017 Order of Lambrick Park, ‘recognizing and honouring Lambrick Park alumni who have made significant contributions or achievements since graduation.’

 

2018 Global Top 50 Diversity Figures in Public Life ‘recognises the achievements of individuals who have used their position in public life, for example as a campaigner, politician or journalist to make an impact in diversity.’ Listed alongside Malala Yousufzai, Angelina Jolie, Bernie Sanders, Emma Watson, His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama of Tibet and more.

 

2020 Short-listed for the Danger Prize for Dead Man Switch /The War Widow 

 

2021 Global Change Maker for disability advocacy, Conscious Being magazine 

 

2022 City of Victoria Honorary Citizen Award, for work as an author and as a human rights advocate and advocate for accessibility and people with disabilities.