Ian Holding was born in 1978 in Harare, Zimbabwe and has lived there all his life.

His first novel, Unfeeling was published by Simon and Schuster in 2005, and was shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. In 2009 he was a Hawthornden Fellow. His second book, Of Beasts & Beings, was published in August 2010, again by Simon and Schuster. His latest novel is What Happened to US, published by Little Island Press in 2018.