​Holden Sheppard is an award-winning West Australian author. His debut coming-of-age novel Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press, 2019) won multiple accolades, including the 2019 West Australian Premier's Prize for an Emerging Writer and the 2018 City of Fremantle Hungerford Award. The book is now being translated into French for publication in Europe and has been adapted into a TV series by Stan Australia, currently in post-production. 

​

Holden's second novel The Brink (Text Publishing, 2022) won  Young Adult Book of the Year at the 2023 Indie Book Awards and the 2024 Ena Noël Award. The Brink was shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Literary Awards, the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) and the QLD Writers' Centre's Adaptable program.

​

Holden's writing has been published in books including Growing Up in Country Australia (Black Inc, 2022), Hometown Haunts (Wakefield Press, 2021) and Bright Lights, No City (Margaret River Press, 2019). He has written articles for WA Today, 10 Daily, the Huffington Post, the ABC, DNA Magazine and FasterLouder and his creative works have been published in journals Griffith Review, Westerly, page seventeen and Indigo Journal. He graduated with Honours from Edith Cowan University’s Writing program, and in 2015 won a prestigious Australia Council grant.

 

Holden has been profiled in several books including Prudish Nation (Upswell Publishing, 2023), Hard Knocks (Affirm Press, 2022) and How To Be An Author (Fremantle Press, 2021). In 2022, he appeared on the hit ABC TV series You Can't Ask That (Season 7, Episode 1:  "Bogans"). Holden is an ambassador for Lifeline WA and served as Deputy Chair of Writing WA from 2019 - 2023. He is represented by Gaby Naher of Left Bank Literary. 

​

When he's not writing, Holden can be found working out at the gym, watching or playing footy (AFL), or working as a labourer. Originally from Geraldton in the Midwest, he now lives in Perth's far north, with his husband and his V8 ute.