My debut novel, What Time is Love?, was published as a lead title for Orion Fiction in 2022, and has sold in a further 13 countries around the world. It is a love story told over several decades that asks readers, ‘What if you met the right person at the wrong time?’ In 2020, I received funding from Arts Council England to complete the book.

What Time is Love? came out in paperback 16 Febuary 2023, and my second novel, The Start of Something, will be published by Orion in 2024.

My agent in the UK is Tristan Kendrick at RCW literary agency. For TV and film queries, it’s Emily Smith at The Agency.

I am also a freelance journalist specialising in the arts. I worked on staff at The Independent and The Independent on Sunday for six years. Since going freelance, I have written for the New York Times, The Guardian, the FT, Vogue, the New Statesman, The Sunday Times, Tatler, The Evening Standard, BBC Culture, ELLE, Stylist, Vice, The Stage, Elephant, Cosmopolitan and The Telegraph, and reviewed theatre and books for The Observer, the Times Literary Supplement, Time Out, The Mail on Sunday, What’s on Stage, The Independent and more.

As an editor, I am experienced in commissioning, editing and proofing copy, uploading content and laying out pages. In 2018-19, I was acting arts editor for The Independent. I have provided cover for editors at The Observer and Time Out, as well as working shifts at Stylist and The Debrief.

My consulting work includes being an active associate for script-reading service Rough Hewn, offering feedback and dramaturgical support for playwrights. I have also planned and led workshops for Arts Emergency, the Faber Academy and The Writers Workshop.

In 2023, I was a judge for The Stage Debut Awards, and in 2019, I was a judge for the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. I have appeared on TV and radio programmes as an arts specialist, including Sky News, Radio 4’s Front Row and You and Yours, and NPR, and have written programme notes and syndicated content for many theatres.

In 2021, I was shortlisted for Art and Design Writer of the Year at the Freelance Writing Awards. In 2015, I received a Special Commendation in the Allen Wright Award for arts journalism at the Edinburgh festivals; I was also shortlisted in 2014 and 2016.

Contact me

• Get in touch: holly (at) hollywrites.com
• Contact my agent: tristan (at) rcwlitagency.com
• Follow me on Twitter: @Holly_bops