Holt was born in Washington, DC and is the daughter of the public broadcasting pioneer, Samuel C. O.

"[4] She then went on to pursue her MFA at Brooklyn College, where she studied with professors such as Michael Cunningham, and received the Himan Brown award.

[8] In 2013, Holt published a novel, You Are One of Them, that draws on the true story of Samantha Smith, an American schoolgirl who wrote to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov at the height of the Cold War.

[9] Smith then visited the Soviet Union on a peace tour but died in a plane crash en route home.

[12][13][14] In the New York Times Book Review, Maggie Shipstead wrote, "…You Are One of Them” is a hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight.