Holly Ringland is the author of the international bestseller The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, which has been translated into thirty-one languages and is being adapted into a seven-part TV series starring Sigourney Weaver and produced by Amazon Prime and Bruna Papandrea’s Made Up Stories. It will screen in more than 240 countries and territories in 2023. In 2019, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart won the Australian Book Industry Award General Fiction Book of the Year. In 2021, Holly co-hosted an eight-episode ABC TV series, Back to Nature, alongside Aaron Pedersen. After living between Australia and the UK for ten years, Holly has been based in the Yugambeh region of southeast Queensland since 2020, where she wrote The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding in her ‘office’, a vintage caravan named Frenchie.
This conversation covers MANY THINGS including:
- Holly’s early love of reading and writing (spurred on by her mum who labelled things around the house)
- First novel writing experience (inspired, of course, by a deep love for River Phoenix)
- The role of fear in writing (and holding us back)
- The courage grief gave Holly to begin writing The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
- Early success (Griffith Review + Varuna) AND early rejection of Alice Hart
- Holly’s ‘highlight moment’ from the publication journey with Alice Hart (involving snot and mascara)
- Taking advice from Austin Kleon in Steal Like an Artist, and particularly in Show Your Work
- Writing and working on Back to Nature through the pandemic
- The role of beauty and joy and wonder in our lives and experiences
- Black Space Creative
- Holly’s writing village including her partner Sam and friend Myf Jones (Kate also mentions other ‘Joy Beacons’ authors Brooke Davis and Claire Christian (we interviewed Claire here)
Holly’s writing advice:
Write what you love, without shame. It’s so simple and it’s so hard.
Holly’s debut recommendation: Tiny Uncertain Miracles by Michelle Johnston
You can find news about events with Holly on her website or on her Instagram or Twitter.
The First Time podcast 