Holden Sheppard

Last updated
Holden Sheppard
Born
Alma mater Edith Cowan University
OccupationAuthor
Years active2017–present
Known forInvisible Boys [2] [3]
Spouse
Raphael Farmer
(m. 2019)
[4] [5]
Website https://www.holdensheppard.com/

Holden Sheppard (born June 26, 1988) is a multi award-winning author from Geraldton, Western Australia. His debut young adult (YA) novel, Invisible Boys, won multiple accolades including the 2018 T.A.G. Hungerford Award and the 2019 Western Australian Premier's Book Award. His writing often focuses on themes of masculinity, sexuality and mental health. [6]

Contents

Early life

Sheppard was born in the country town of Geraldton in Western Australia. [7] At the age of 18, he moved to Perth and studied a bachelors of English literature at Edith Cowan University.

Career

Sheppard's debut YA novel, Invisible Boys, follows three gay teenage boys rural Western Australia after one of them is outed. It was published by Fremantle Press in 2019 after Sheppard won the T.A.G. Hungerford Award in 2018 and received a cash prize and publishing contract. In 2019, he won the Western Australian Premier's Book Award for an Emerging Writer and received $15,000 in prize money. [8] The following year, the book was shortlisted for the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and was named a Notable Book by the Children's Book Council of Australia. [9] It is currently in development as a 10-episode TV series as part of a Screenwest and Stan development initiative. [10]

His second book, YA thriller The Brink, was published by Text Publishing in 2022 and won the 2023 Indie Book Awards Young adult prize. [11] The book follows a group of school leavers on a remote island off the coast of Western Australia, where they discover a dead body. [12]

Sheppard's writing has been published in several literary magazines including Griffith Review, Westerly, page seventeen and Indigo Journal. [13] His work has also appeared in anthologies Bright Lights, No City (2018), [13] Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales (2021) [14] and Growing Up in Country Australia (2022). [15]

Personal life

Sheppard is openly gay and is married to husband Raphael Farmer. [16] He is also a part-time labourer. [17] [18]

Bibliography

YearTitleNotes
2017The Scroll of IsidorDebut [19]
2017A Man
2017The Black Flower
2018Poster Boy [20] Novella
2019Invisible BoysAward-winning book [21] [22] [23]
2019Bright Lights, No City [24]
2022The Brink [25] [26]

Television

YearShowRoleChannelLanguageNotes
2022 You Can't Ask That Guest ABC English [27] [28]

Accolades

YearAwardResultRef.
2017Ray Koppe Residency AwardWon [29] [30]
2018 T.A.G. Hungerford Award Won
2019Kathleen Mitchell AwardWon
2019 Western Australian Premier's Book Awards Won
2020Readings Young Adult Book PrizeNominated
2020Children's Book Council of Australia Notable BookNominated
2020Indie Book AwardNominated
2020Victorian Premier's Literary AwardNominated
2023Indie Book Award – Young adultWon [31]
2023Ethel Turner Prize for Young People's Literature (New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards)Shortlisted [32]

Related Research Articles

Sonya Louise Hartnett is an Australian author of fiction for adults, young adults, and children. She has been called "the finest Australian writer of her generation". For her career contribution to "children's and young adult literature in the broadest sense" Hartnett won the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award from the Swedish Arts Council in 2008, the biggest prize in children's literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Sheppard (writer)</span> American writer (1948–2021)

Simon Sheppard was a writer of gay erotica and a sex-advice columnist from San Francisco. He is the author of many books of gay sex writing, including Man on Man: The Best of Simon Sheppard, Sodomy!, Jockboys,Kinkorama: Dispatches From the Front Lines of Perversion,In Deep, and Sex Parties 101. He was also the editor of Homosex: 60 Years of Gay Erotica, winner of the 2007 Lambda Literary Award for LGBT erotica; the anthology Leathermen; and is the coeditor of the anthologies Rough Stuff and Roughed Up.

Carmelina Marchetta is an Australian writer and teacher. Marchetta is best known as the author of teen novels, Looking for Alibrandi, Saving Francesca and On the Jellicoe Road. She has twice been awarded the CBCA Children's Book of the Year Award: Older Readers, in 1993 and 2004. For Jellicoe Road she won the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award from the American Library Association, recognizing the year's best book for young adults.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Boyne</span> Irish novelist, author of childrens and youth fiction

John Boyne is an Irish novelist. He is the author of fourteen novels for adults, six novels for younger readers, two novellas and one collection of short stories. His novels are published in over 50 languages. His 2006 novel The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was adapted into a 2008 film of the same name.

Christos Tsiolkas is an Australian author, playwright, and screenwriter. He is especially known for The Slap, which was both well-received critically and highly successful commercially. Several of his books have been adapted for film and television.

<i>The Fur</i> 2004 novel by Nathan Hobby

The Fur is a science fiction novel by author Nathan Hobby, published in 2004 after winning the 2002 T. A. G. Hungerford Award for unpublished new writers.

The City of Fremantle T.A.G. Hungerford Award is given biennially to a full-length manuscript of fiction or narrative non-fiction by a Western Australian author previously unpublished in book form. It is sponsored by the City of Fremantle, Fremantle Press, Fremantle Library and The West Australian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Coast Fever</span> Australian netball team

West Coast Fever is a professional Australian netball team based in Perth, Western Australia. Since 2017 they have played in Suncorp Super Netball. Between 2008 and 2016, they competed in the ANZ Championship. Between 1997 and 2007, as Perth Orioles, they competed in the Commonwealth Bank Trophy league. During the ANZ Championship era, Fever were the only Australian team not to win a title, play in a grand final or feature in a finals series. However, during the Suncorp Super Netball era they emerged as challengers. They were grand finalists in both 2018 and 2020, and eventually claimed their first premiership in 2022.

Thomas Arthur Guy Hungerford, AM was an Australian writer, noted for his World War II novel The Ridge and the River, and his short stories that chronicle growing up in South Perth, Western Australia during the Great Depression.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. Lockhart</span> American writer

Emily Jenkins, who sometimes uses the pen name E. Lockhart, is an American writer of children's picture books, young-adult novels, and adult fiction. She is known best for the Ruby Oliver quartet, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, and We Were Liars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Georgie Stone</span> Australian actress and transgender rights activist

Georgie Robertson Stone is an Australian actress, writer and transgender rights advocate. At the age of 10, Stone was the youngest person to receive hormone blockers in Australia, which set a precedent that eventually changed the law that compelled transgender children and their families to apply to the Family Court of Australia to access stage one treatment. She continues to advocate for transgender children, and is one of the most visible transgender people in Australia. She is also known for her role as Mackenzie Hargreaves in Neighbours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jenny Han</span> American writer (born 1980)

Jenny Han is an American author of young adult fiction and children's fiction. She is best known for writing the To All the Boys series and The Summer I Turned Pretty trilogy, which were adapted into a film series and TV series, respectively.

Kleenheat is an Australian gas producer, retailer and distributor based in Perth, Western Australia.

Kate Maree Mulvany is an Australian actress, playwright and screenwriter. She works in theatre, television and film, with roles in Hunters (2020–2023), The Great Gatsby (2013), Griff the Invisible (2010) and The Final Winter (2007). She has played lead roles with Australian theatre companies as well as appearing on television and in film.

Aleph Melbourne is a Jewish LGBT organization located in Melbourne, Australia.

Anna-Marie McLemore is a Mexican-American author of young adult fiction magical realism, best known for their Stonewall Honor-winning novel When the Moon Was Ours, Wild Beauty, and The Weight of Feathers.

This is a list of historical events and publications of Australian literature during 2019.

Ashley Madison is the stage name of Sean Glasson, an Australian drag performer who competed on season 3 of RuPaul's Drag Race Down Under.

References

  1. "Geraldton-born, award-winning author Holden Sheppard on exploring freedom in second novel". www.geraldtonguardian.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  2. "Invisible Boys author Holden Sheppard has sold the film and television rights to his debut novel". thewest.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  3. "Holden Sheppard: Invisible Boys author says he's not a role model". www.geraldtonguardian.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  4. "Holden Sheppard". centreforstories.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  5. "I tried to convert myself from gay to straight. It doesn't work". www.smh.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  6. Burge, Michael (2022-07-03). "Backwards to Bourke: Bulldust about Gays in the Bush". Journal of Australian Studies. 46 (3): 307–320. doi:10.1080/14443058.2022.2077405. ISSN   1444-3058. S2CID   249717745.
  7. "5 Questions with Holden Sheppard". margaretriverpress.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  8. "2019 Winners". State Library of Western Australia. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  9. "Holden Sheppard". Writing WA. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  10. "The television series 'Invisible Boys' receives more development funding". OUTInPerth | LGBTQIA+ News and Culture. 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  11. "'Runt' wins 2023 Indie Book of the Year". Books+Publishing. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 2023-03-22.
  12. Perse, Elena (2022-09-05). "Book review: The Brink, Holden Sheppard". ArtsHub Australia. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  13. 1 2 "Holden Sheppard". Centre for Stories. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  14. "Wakefield Press :: Children's and Teenage :: Hometown Haunts". www.wakefieldpress.com.au. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  15. "Growing Up In Country Australia". Reading Australia. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  16. "Growing up gay in Geraldton: how Holden Sheppard lived to tell the tale". www.smh.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  17. "Local authors battle for lucrative T.A.G. Hungerford Award". thewest.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  18. "Holden Sheppard: Pushed to the Limits". www.wheelercentre.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  19. "Novel gives voice to being young and gay in rural WA". thewest.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  20. "All Being Equal". Griffith Review. Retrieved 2023-01-29.
  21. "After the critical and commercial success of Invisible Boys (Fremantle Press), our favourite WA author Holden Sheppard is back with a timely exploration of dangerous youth in his new novel, The Brink". happymag.tv. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  22. "Holden Sheppard's "Invisible Boys" a Young Adult success". www.starobserver.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  23. "'Invisible Boys' selected as successful recipient of Stan and Screenwest Development Initiative". www.screenwest.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  24. "Local author Holden Sheppard signs two-book deal with Text Publishing". www.outinperth.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  25. "Out Gay Australian Author Holden Sheppard Talks About Life On 'The Brink'". www.starobserver.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  26. "Holden Sheppard drops trailer for new book The Brink". qnews.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  27. "You Can't Ask That return sees WA author Holden Sheppard dish on what it's like to be a bogan". thewest.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  28. "Holden Sheppard on You Can't Ask That, 'Bogans'". qnews.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  29. "Holden Sheppard Accolades". fremantlepress.com.au. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  30. "Meet Author Holden Sheppard at Crow Books Q&A event". www.outinperth.com. Retrieved 3 September 2022.
  31. "Indie Book Awards 2023 shortlist announced". Books+Publishing. 2023-01-18. Retrieved 2023-01-18.
  32. "The Brink". State Library of NSW. 2023-02-03. Retrieved 2023-03-01.