Hi, I’m Holly Ringland
The international bestselling author of two novels, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, and The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding, one work of non-fiction – The House That Joy Built – and my forthcoming novel, The World Beneath Her Feet.
I write stories about beauty, grief, courage and belonging — and the mysterious ways we find our way home to ourselves, each other, and the natural world. Welcome.
Start here:
Or scroll on, and I’ll show you around.
Coming this September:
Dear reader,
meet Maggie Byrd.
‘It will never be like this again.’
She looked up. He met her eye.
‘You’ll never love anyone the way you do when you’re sixteen.’
In her late thirties, Maggie Byrd lives a charmed life in London. She works with fossils and gems at the Natural History Museum, and shares a home with the two people she loves most: her best friend, Harriet, and her partner, Joe. However, beneath this carefully constructed facade lies a past Maggie buried deep inside herself and resolved never to unearth: the story of a guilt-ridden, heartbroken girl who left Australia in her early twenties and swore never to return. But when she learns that she's inherited her beloved uncle's rewilded land in a lush valley of southeast Queensland, Maggie's London life begins to fracture.
Bordering a town famous for its rare opalised fossil discoveries, the land lies near a volcanic lake rumoured to be cursed, and a sacred, ephemeral tea-tree swamp. It is land rich with living culture, and home to an abundance of native flora and fauna. And it’s long been sought after by developers, willing to pay any price. In the nineties, this wild, vivid place also shaped Maggie when she was an angry, lost teenager. It was her home and sanctuary, where she experienced the intoxicating powers and limitations of friendship, first love, desire and loyalty - until she betrayed everyone she loved there and fled. When the same land that Maggie turned her back on comes into her care, she is forced to face what we all cannot bury, abandon or forget.
The World Beneath Her Feet is a luminous novel about belonging, memory, time, first love, and what it takes to come home to ourselves and each other.
2026 Australian Book Tour
~
2026 Australian Book Tour ~
I am beside myself to be going on an 18-event national book tour to celebrate the publication of
The World Beneath Her Feet.
With more events to be announced!
I so hope you can join me.
All my books at a glance:
THE LOST FLOWERS OF ALICE HART – 2018 – my debut novel, set in Australia between the sea, a flower farm, and the western desert. Now a 7-episode series on Prime Video.
THE SEVEN SKINS OF ESTHER WILDING – 2022 – my second novel, set in Tasmania, Copenhagen and the Faroe Islands. Booktopia's Book of the Year.
THE HOUSE THAT JOY BUILT – 2023 – my bestselling non-fiction on managing fear. An openhearted clarion call to experience the joy and freedom of creating.
THE WORLD BENEATH HER FEET – 2026 – my new novel, set between London and southeast Queensland, coming September, 2026.
✷
Collectively, my books have been published in 30+ territories, sold over 600,000 copies, and been adapted for screen by Prime Video. Mindblown.
✷ Collectively, my books have been published in 30+ territories, sold over 600,000 copies, and been adapted for screen by Prime Video. Mindblown.
Words about my books*
*that still make me well up
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Ringland's storytelling is driven by an undimmed sense of wonder at the darkness and light, the damage and love in people.
— SYDNEY MORNING HERALD on The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
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This intercontinental journey into joy, grief, nature and magic confirms Holly Ringland as one of Australia’s most precious, life-changing storytellers.
— BOOKTOPIA on The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding
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A non-fiction masterpiece… encourages readers to reflect on their fears and grant themselves permission to create and feel joy… you’ll find sanctuary in this book.
— APPLE BOOK REVIEWS on The House That Joy Built
In my own words…
As a writer, I’m drawn to the ways joy, beauty and connection help us survive, remember, create, mend and begin again. My work often explores nature, longing, the things we can’t bear to say, and the invisible threads that bind us to landscapes, and each other.
Despite knowing I wanted to be a writer at three years old – when my amazing mum taught me to read – I spent years of my life too afraid to write, for many reasons. This didn’t change until I reached a point in my thirties when not writing became more painful than the fear of writing.
I’ve been a full-time writer for over a decade now. Everything I write – novels, non-fiction, poetry, essays – is for anyone trying or wanting to find more wonder, joy, creativity, grace, courage and connection.
My work on screen:
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
The award-winning, 7-episode series adaptation of my debut novel, streaming on Prime Video, starring Sigourney Weaver.
Back to Nature
The critically-acclaimed 8-episode nature and story series I co-hosted with Aaron Pedersen, streaming on the ABC.
With a light left on*
* why I sign off every letter of The Joy Rise this way, and what I remind myself of when writing feels like an impossible level of fuckery
In May 2024, I had the honour of speaking about creativity, grace, and joy at a Sydney Writers Festival event, alongside beloved broadcaster, journalist and author, Julia Baird, hosted by acclaimed interlocutor, Michaela Kalowski. Despite having a full house crowd at Sydney City Recital Hall, during the course of our conversation the room felt small, in the best way.
This is an excerpt from our conversation, lightly edited for clarity.
MICHAELA: “At the beginning of your book, The House That Joy Built, you write about this idea of a house that's inside of us, a house on our inner landscape where the light is always left on. Can you explain what you were describing?”
HOLLY: I’m someone who was too scared to write for years because of trauma, grief, fear, and all of the things we all carry around with us, like our inner critics and so on. But when I was writing the opening chapters of The House That Joy Built, I started to think about what it feels like on the other side of that blockage. What it felt like in 2014 when I was writing Lost Flowers, and 2022 when I was writing Seven Skins.
And it felt like returning. It felt like returning to a place inside of myself that I hadn't viscerally felt or remembered since I was little. Whether we’re talking 14 years old, or younger, it was a place where, when I was little, I was never thinking about whether I was any good at play or creating. I was doing it because I enjoyed it so much.
That sense of returning reminded me of what it's like when we come home to a physical place, that for whatever reason, we haven't been able to access or visit for a long time. I thought about landscapes in my life that will call me back to them all my life, because I have loved them while I've been there. That's when I thought that, to me, returning to our imaginations and drawing creativity from there is coming back to our inner country.
And that 14-year-old that sat at her second-hand IBM? She was writing a mash-up of Baywatch fan fiction / River Phoenix love affair stories. It was 1994, everyone.”
[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]
MICHAELA TO AUDIENCE: “Aren't you just dying to read that?”
HOLLY (laughs): “Coming back to the place that the 14-year-old in me wrote from - it's that feeling when you get home, at the end of a long day, a hard day, a long time away from home, and someone's left the light on for you so that you can see as you come in. That young version of myself knew that creativity was worth the joy it brought. Full stop. That was the purpose.
And that was the light that she left on for me.”
Listen to this very special conversation:
Welcome to The Joy Rise:
Letters for creative courage and connection from my desk to you.
The Joy Rise is my online community, where I write to you about creativity, courage, beauty, fear, and the messy work of making a joyous, resilient life. It’s where I connect with my readers, share first-to-know news, and answer questions about my books and creative process.
Events & Speaking
When I’m not touring a new book, I speak at festivals, conferences, bookshops and literary events about fiction, creativity, nature, place, adaptation, transformation, courage, and connection.
2025: no big deal, just me headlining Brontë Women’s Writing Festival with Tracy Chevalier.“There are few people in the literary world like Holly Ringland. Over years of curating events and interviewing authors from around the world — from Margaret Atwood and Colum McCann to Robyn Davidson and many others — I’ve witnessed countless ways audiences connect with writers. What happens between Holly and her audiences is something entirely her own: generous, moving and rare. What she creates and offers is a cultural force for good.”
“The Holly Ringland Effect is real. Holly has that star power that can transform and transfix a room, leaving a lasting impression on audiences well beyond the end of the book-signing line. When Holly steps onto the stage, she lights it up with her boundless joy, honesty and divine feminine energy. They delight in her words – they laugh, cry happy tears, and breathe in unison with her.”
Thank you for supporting my work.
I don’t get to be the author I am without my readers. I’m deeply grateful for your engagement with my writing.
