Award-winning author Holden Sheppard will share his inspiring career arc from stacking shelves at a Perth supermarket as a teenager struggling with his mental health to his status as one of Australia’s brightest literary stars at the Art Gallery of WA on July 18.
The Geraldton-raised writer is the keynote speaker at Pulse Talks, a series of events expanding on the success of The West Australian Pulse exhibition of works by Year 12 visual arts graduates.
Sheppard, 35, earned rave reviews and several awards, including the T.A.G. Hungerford Award and the prize for an emerging writer at the WA Premier’s Book Awards, for his debut novel, Invisible Boys.
Published in 2018, the bestselling book follows three gay teenage boys in rural WA after one of them is outed.
Invisible Boys was greenlit for production as a 10-episode TV series with Stan Australia, which recently finished filming on location in Geraldton and Perth.
Led by producer Tania Chambers and director Nick Verso, the adaptation features emerging actors Joe Klocek, Joseph Zada and Aydan Calafiore alongside established stars David Lyons and Pia Miranda.
The series is likely to premiere next year.
“I never even thought I would write this book,” Sheppard told The West Australian in August 2020 when the film and television rights to Invisible Boys were sold.
“When I started as a writer, I was always going to write very safe fantasy novels and I never even want to go near the gay stuff,” the openly homosexual author added.
“I didn’t want to be known as a professional homosexual, which is kind of hilarious now because it’s all I talk about.
“I really wanted to avoid it,” Sheppard said. “When I was 16, I never thought I would tell anyone what I was going through because it was so hard and traumatic, and I didn’t even think I would get through it.
“The fact that I got through it and can now talk about it, I think this story is in a position to help a lot of people who are going through the same thing.”
![Best Australian Yarn judge author Holden Sheppard.](https://timesofsydney.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/c371cb091147899bf4e3d7f37a887d50c39631ce.jpg)
Sheppard published his second book, young adult thriller The Brink, in 2022.
Following the artist talk, which is free and hosted by The West Live host Ben O’Shea, the acclaimed writer will sign copies of Invisible Boys and The Brink in the AGWA Design Store.
Sheppard’s appearance at Pulse Talks follows the first instalment of the series starring internationally renowned Melbourne street artist Tyrone Wright, whose immersive exhibition TIME RONE is on show in AGWA’s Centenary Galleries until September 30.