Holden, Kate 1972-

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Holden, Kate 1972-

PERSONAL: Born 1972, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; daughter of Geoffrey and Margot Holden. Education: University of Melbourne, honours degree in classics and literature, graduate diploma in professional writing and editing.

CAREER: Author, 2005—. Formerly a sex worker in St. Kilda, Australia.

WRITINGS

In My Skin: A Memoir, Arcade (New York, NY), 2005.

SIDELIGHTS: Kate Holden’s In My Skin: A Memoir is, in the words of Allison Block writing in Booklist, a “breathtakingly candid memoir” recounting her years as a heroin addict and sex worker in suburban St. Kilda, Victoria, Australia. Two things, however, make Holden’s story stand out from those of thousands of women in similar circumstances around the world: first, she was the daughter of middle-class parents, a college graduate with a solid job when she became addicted, and second, she took on the job of prostitute as a career, built a sense of self-esteem on it, and eventually was able to break her addiction. “Her depictions of the dark realities she lived through are at times graphic,” declared a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “... but always clear-eyed.”

Later Holden went back to college, earned a graduate degree in writing, and began work on her memoir—in part, she said in an Australian Broadcasting Corporation interview with Joanna Murray-Smith, because she “had a really strong impulse to communicate my story to people.” “I felt really strongly that there weren’t very many stories that were told by people who had actually overcome heroin addiction or drug addiction,” she continued. “And it was partly out of a desire to show people what it was really like being a prostitute.” “I don’t believe prostitution itself is inherently exploitative, but it can be,” Holden concluded in her Readings interview. “I found my own experience, ultimately, empowering.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES

BOOKS

Holden, Kate, In My Skin: A Memoir, Arcade (New York, NY), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Age (Melbourne, Australia), September 17, 2005, Juliette Hughes, “East of Time.”

Asia Africa Intelligence Wire, October 9, 2005, “Descent into Heroin Hell: A Writer’s Tale”; October 15, 2005, Ceridwen Spark, “A Close Look at the Oldest Trick in the Book.”

Booklist, October 1, 2006, Allison Block, review of In My Skin: A Memoir, p.12.

Europe Intelligence Wire, May 6, 2006, “A College Girl in the Skin Trade.”

Kirkus Reviews, August 15, 2006, review of In My Skin, p. 822.

Library Journal, October 1, 2006, Elizabeth Brinkley, review of In My Skin, p. 94.

New Statesman, June 19, 2006, Mary Fitzgerald, “Like a True Professional,” p. 67.

Observer (London, England), May 14, 2006, Stephanie Merritt, “A Beautiful Loser Makes Good.”

Publishers Weekly, October 2, 2006, review of In My Skin, p. 52.