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Holden Sheppard grew up gay in a small rural town in Western Australia, where he says he felt completely invisible, as he tried to keep his thoughts and feelings under wraps. He's written a critically-acclaimed debut novel, Invisible Boys, drawn from his own adolescence, which tells the story of three 16 year old boys, who seemingly have nothing in common, but are all in the throes of coming to terms with their sexuality in a tough rural town. Holden Sheppard describes himself as "a lifelong misfit, and a walking contradiction: a gym junkie who has played Pokemon competitively; a sensitive geek who loves aggressive punk rock; and a bogan who learned to speak French".
