AUTHOR / ENTERTAINER / YOUTH WORKER
Click here to visit Scot's Secondary page

Scot Gardner is renown for his engaging and stimulating books and presentations for young adults but the effect he has on audiences of upper-primary aged students is like a shot of red cordial to their enthusiasm for reading and writing!

Scot 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.

Scot's other novels for young adults include WHITE UTE DREAMING (Macmillan, 2002) BURNING EDDY (Macmillan, 2003) and THE OTHER MADONNA (Macmillan, 2003). BURNING EDDY was shortlisted for the Children's Book Council Book of the Year and the NSW Premier's Literary Prize for Older Readers. Scot's latest YA novel, THE LEGEND OF KEVIN THE PLUMBER, chronicles a tumultuous year in the life of Gary Sleep, who has too much time on his hands and not enough hope. 

Scot's writing for primary-aged children include STEVE'S BIG IDEA (Part of the KIDS NIGHT IN anthology, Penguin 2003) a story about camping in the back yard that was selected as part of the UNSW Educational Testing Centre curriculum in 2004 and KITE DUDE (part of the AWESOME series Pearson 2004) about a boy who learns to fly-accidentally-when his kite turns out to be more than he can handle.

Scot is currently writing a series of novel length fantasies for 7-11 year olds called THE DETACHABLES about a race of people who can pull themselves apart and put themselves back together again.

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