AUTHOR / YOUTH WORKER
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Scot Gardner is in a position to have special insight into the problems of high-risk teenagers, especially young men and Aboriginal youths. He has been a counsellor and a youth worker for disadvantaged teenagers and has helped establish programs for high-risk youths in Victoria. He has used this experience to guide some of the most gripping reading for young adults.

Scot currently lives near the Victorian town of Yinnar in a solar-powered barn with his wife and three sweet little fairies (Ha!). He has been a counsellor, masseur and hypnotherapist, an education consultant, landscape designer/builder, didgeridoo player and author. Finally, add to this diverse picture Scot's self-identified love of hippie music and thunderstorms.

Scot was discovered at John Marsden's Writers' Conference at Tye Estate in Jan 2000. Within a year, Scot's first novel ONE DEAD SEAGULL was published by Macmillan. A book of the trials and turmoil of boyhood ("a world of maternally enforced hygiene, Lynx 'Aztec' deodorant and the ogling of girls without their noticing...") ONE DEAD SEAGULL is respected for its honesty, realism and compassion when writing of the Australian adolescent male.

Following in the same confronting but entertaining manner, Scot's second novel WHITE UTE DREAMING (Macmillan, 2002) carries the following 'active ingredients' warning: "Includes dog dribble, campfire smoke, laughter, hate and/or love letters, beer, skid marks, roses, heavy metal, condoms, fish scales, chicken feathers, cigarette ash and blood. If swallowed, seek medical advice. Do NOT induce vomiting."

2003 was another big year for Scot, with two more of his YA novels being published - BURNING EDDY (Macmillan) and THE OTHER MADONNA (Macmillan). BURNING EDDY is the story of fifteen year old Daniel Fairbrother, looking for direction and finding hope in one of the most unlikely places: an 86 year old Dutch woman named Eddy. BURNING EDDY was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council Book of the Year and the NSW Premier's Literary Prize for Older Readers. THE OTHER MADONNA is a novel about seventeen-year-old Madonna O'Dwyer, her coming of age, piercing, pizzas and the healing power of love.

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THE LEGEND OF KEVIN THE PLUMBER, released chronicles a tumultuous year in the life of Gary Sleep, who has too much time on his hands and not enough hope. 

Scot describes his writing process to be "a lot like rifling through lives to find the treasures. I'm a story scab."

Scot developed a social development program for middle school boys who were 'at risk' of leaving school early or hurting themselves or others called Footy, Beer and Girls. In a similar approach to his writing, Scot and his co-worker, Peter Little worked with groups of young men, roughed and tumbled and discussed life with brutal honesty.