Jim Holland grew up in the Western Australian wheatbelt town of Kwolyin and was sent to boarding school at Guildford Grammar. After leaving school he became a shearer and rouseabout until, in the early 1980s, he was sent to Fremantle prison for committing a robbery with violence. During his imprisonment, he completed a university matriculation course and began writing. Since his release, he has worked as a tutor, a writer and an Aboriginal teacher's aide.
