​Holden Sheppard is an award-winning West Australian author originally from the Midwest town of Geraldton. 

 

His debut 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. In 2020, Invisible Boys was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and was named a Notable Book by the Children's Book Council of Australia. The novel is now in development as a TV series. 

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Holden's second novel The Brink (Text Publishing, 2022) won the Young Adult Book of the Year Award at the 2023 Indie Book Awards. The Brink is currently shortlisted for the 2023 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and the 2023 Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs).

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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. 

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When he's not writing, Holden can be found working out at the gym, watching footy (AFL), playing touch footy or working as a labourer. He lives in Perth with his husband.