YA and Adult

Across a Fluky Sea

ISBN 9781618130556

It’s the early 1990s and Gus Watson is learning how tough it is to become an adult. In three linked narratives, Across a Fluky Sea navigates four tumultuous years as Gus grapples with the vulnerabilities of love, the disintegration of his closest childhood friend, and a growing awareness that youth is nothing if not fleeting. A haunting exploration of life, love and loss from acclaimed author Ken Spillman.

Brilliantly written… Spillman creates his characters with sensitivity, and sketches their experiences with great craft and skill. — The West Australian

The Most Natural Thing

ISBN 9781618131072

Nicholas Steyn is fourteen. He’s learning about kissing. He’s dreaming about a whole lot more. The Most Natural Thing is a sensitive portrayal of a teenage boy steering his way through a summer of desire, daydreams and disappointment.

A warm, perceptive reflection on growing up. — Herald Sun

Love is a UFO (republished as) I Am Oscar

ISBN 9789351031680

Meet Oscar. His father is dead, his mother is a mess and his sister resembles a zombie. Oscar’s growing too fast and trying to find his feet at a new school. When life is freaky and getting freakier, can Oscar get to focus on cricket and kiss the girl who can’t keep still?

If there were just one reason why writers should be treasured, it is that they can articulate the inarticulate. That’s exactly what Spillman does in this funny, sad, sharp and warm book… If you have a young teen in your house, buy this book. — Sunday Times Magazine

Blue: A Novel

ISBN 1-86368-244-9

A gritty discontinuous narrative centring on a group of young adults over four years of relationships, jobs and big life decisions. Cumulatively, the work gains power as a multiview exploration of the thresholds to adulthood.

A novel for the young adult market that deserves a much wider readership. Spillman uses a number of voices, taken at moments of crisis over a period of four years, weaving the strands into a complex polyphony of the ebbs and flows of friendships… Recommended. — Marie Claire

The State of the Art

ISBN 978-0140065985

Compiled by Frank Moorhouse as a showcase of the best Australian short fiction of the late 1970s and early 1980s, this features a piece by Ken Spillman writing under the pen name of Kenneth Gaunt. Other contributors include Peter Carey, Helen Garner, Nene Gare, Michael Wilding, Kate Grenville, John Bryson, Nicholas Jose, Murray Bail, Olga Masters and Morris Lurie.

Summer Shorts

ISBN 978-1863680653

Peter Holland’s assortment of stories, articles, poems and images by some of Western Australia’s best loved authors including Ken Spillman, Randolph Stowe, Mary Durack, Brigid Lowry, Dorothy Hewett, Gail Jones, John Kinsella, Dennis Haskell, A.B. Facey, Nicholas Hasluck and Dave Warner.

Summer Shorts 2

ISBN 978-1863681001

Compiled by Peter and Barbara Holland, this miscellany includes writing from Ken Spillman, Tracy Ryan, Elizabeth Jolley, Andrew Lansdown, Glyn Parry, Bill Bunbury, Shane McCauley, Steve Hawke and Andrew Burke.