Meet Holly
Holly Cardamone is an award-winning Australian author who writes funny, relatable and moving novels that explore the beauty and complexity of being human. Her debut novel won the 2024 Hawkeye Publishing Manuscript Development Prize. She was a finalist in the 2024 Romance Writers of Australia Sweet Treats anthology and has been long and short listed in a number of national short story awards. In 2026, Holly will be recognised as a KSP Fellow after winning a fellowship for an unpublished YA manuscript.
Holly has a Master of Communications, a Master of Writing and Literature and a Graduate Diploma of Information Management (Libraries). She weaves words with an Australian Shepherd on her feet and spends her time between Melbourne and the Bass Coast. Her work is inspired by the shenanigans of real life in all of its glorious entanglements and emotional constellations, including stealthy observations of her teenage cherubs during her unpaid and unappreciated role as their personal chauffeur.
Memberships:
- Writers Victoria
- Australian Society of Authors
- Children’s Book Council of Australia
- SCBWI Australia East
- Romance Writers of Australia
Holly is a librarian in a beautiful school library as well as Head Word Nerd at Blue51 Communications, a boutique communications and writing consultancy where she helps people tell their story and grow their brand.
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Up until the age of eighteen and a bit I went to sleep each night to the sound of the surf and I woke in the early mornings to cowsong.
I’m insufferably smug when I have a fridge full of fresh fruit and vegetables.
My 50th birthday ‘gift’ to myself was running a marathon. No, I didn’t hate it. Yes, I’d do another one in a heartbeat.
I’m fascinated by lighthouses and I completely shot my knee hiking to stay at one.
My favourite place is by the water, preferably the ocean, but a pool makes me happy too.
I love the sound of my footfall on a gravel path.
Fresh flowers make me happy.
History and mythology enthralls me. Got a witch trial story? Come sit by me and tell me everything!
I’m a sucker for early 90s grunge music and my playlists are something to behold.
In 2023, I had a lifequake which sent me scuttling back to university to become qualified as a librarian. I now work part time in a beautiful school library putting books in kids’ (and teachers’) hands. It’s the perfect alignment of my strengths, my passions, my expertise, my experiential diversity, and, not insignificantly, my values.
I’m a mama to two magical and feisty cherubs, wife to a devilishly handsome Carlton Football Club tragic and slave to the most beautiful boy in the world, Buddy the Australian Shepherd.