STEWART, Kathleen 1958-

PERSONAL: Born 1958, in Australia.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Allen and Unwin, P.O. Box 8500, St. Leonards, New South Wales 1590 Australia.

CAREER: Writer. Formerly singer-songwriter for band Upsidedown House for seven years.

WRITINGS:

Victim Train, W. Heinemann Australia (Port Melbourne, Australia), 1992.

Louis: A Normal Novel, Minerva (Port Melbourne, Australia), 1993.

Snow (poetry), W. Heinemann Australia (Port Melbourne, Australia), 1994.

Spilt Milk, Minerva (Port Melbourne, Australia), 1995.

Nightflowers, Minerva (Port Melbourne, Australia), 1996.

The White Star (poetry) Minerva (Port Melbourne, Australia), 1997.

The Red Room, Allen and Unwin (St. Leonards, Australia), 1999.

The Black Butterfly, Allen and Unwin (St. Leonards, Australia), 2001.

Stewart's poetry has appeared in newspapers, magazines, and literary journals, as well as anthologies.

SIDELIGHTS: Kathleen Stewart has been writing poetry and prose for over two decades. She began penning verse when she was about seven years old, and in her late teens turned to the poetic forms of the ancient Greeks for inspiration. In her twenties, she worked for seven years as a singer-songwriter for the Australian band Upsidedown House; during that time, she decided that she was tired of trying to fit writing in part-time, and she decided to devote all her time to it. Although she began writing seriously in her twenties, Stewart's work was not published until she was thirty years old.

In Louis: A Normal Novel, Stewart tells the story of Louis, a boy who lives in an orderly Australian suburb but who dreams of escaping to the bush and a primitive way of life. He tries to escape his ordinary life with an attempted suicide, but instead ends up in a mental hospital. In the Australian Book Review, Cath Kenneally wrote, "Stewart has produced a lyrical and moving novel of ordinariness."

Spilt Milk stars Sylvia Manilla, who has been abandoned by her husband, Joe. Sylvia leaves her young daughter, Zoe, with her own parents, and wanders, thinking about the nature of love, but finds no answers. In the Australian Book Review, Carl Harrison-Ford wrote of Stewart's listless protagonist, "There is a fascination after a fashion with someone so shadowless and uninvolved with the things of this world."

Stewart told an interviewer from The I Web site, "With every book it's always a mystery to a degree. It's always a puzzle and that to me is fitting together the puzzle, finding out what it is precisely that I want to say and saying it. That for me is probably one of the most absorbing parts of writing." She also noted on the Allen and Unwin Web site her advice to beginning writers who want to be published: "Prepare to work long and hard, and expect little tangible reward. Fiction writing is one of the lowest paid professions, yet one of the most honourable. Plan to live a frugal life."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Australian Book Review, April, 1992, p. 51; September, 1993, p. 16; July, 1994, p. 33; February, 1995, p. 40; September, 1996, p. 32; May, 1997, p. 51; November, 1999, p. 30.

online

Allen and Unwin Web site, http://www.allenandunwin.com/ (August 1, 2003).

The I Web site, http://www.thei.aust.com/ (June 6, 2003).*