Author Event: Holden Sheppard

Join us for this special In-person event with award winning West Australian author, Holden Sheppard while he is touring Adelaide. 

Speaking with our very own Sonja Lawrance about his third & latest novel, King of Dirt, this will be an entertaining afternoon so make sure to mark this one in your calendar. 

QBD will be selling copies of King of Dirt on the day & Holden is happy to sign copies. Light refreshments will be provided.  

Please note this event is only suitable for Adults 18 years and older. 

About the Author: 

Holden Sheppard is a West Australian author, whose 2019 novel Invisible Boys won multiple awards, including the WA Premier’s Prize for an Emerging Writer. A screen adaptation of Invisible Boys recently premiered as a ten-episode television series with Stan Australia. Holden’s second book The Brink won accolades including the Ena Noel Award. King of Dirt is his third novel and his first book for adults. Originally from Geraldton, Holden now lives in Perth’s north with his husband and his V8 ute.

About the Book:

King of Dirt is a gritty and heartfelt gay coming-of-age story set in the world of FIFO workers and tradies in Western Australia.
Giacomo Brolo, aka Jack, is a mess. He works piecemeal construction gigs in remote WA, drinks himself to oblivion and is estranged from his family and friends. He's consumed by a self-loathing all too common for closeted men who have grown up in a world of hate and shame.

But then Jack returns to his regional hometown of Geraldton for a family wedding. He hasn't been back since he fled at the age of eighteen, and his past soon catches up with him.

Turns out Jack's deeply conservative Italian family would prefer he remained in the closet. Then he finds out he may have conceived a son with his teenage girlfriend, and now Jack needs to convince her and her new husband that he's fit to be a father figure. And whatever happened to Xavier, the former schoolmate who Jack was in love with and whose rejection spurred him to leave Geraldton in the first place?

Is Jack doomed to live a dead-end life – or can he open himself up to the possibility of love, found family and connection?

By attending this event you consent for you, and any persons you are responsible for, being photographed and/or filmed and agree that the City of Campbelltown may use the resulting photographs and film for promotional purposes, including by publishing them in print and other media. Please see one of our event staff if you do not wish to be photographed or filmed.