Erin Gough Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Erin Gough is an Australian young adult, queer fiction author from Sydney. She published her debut novel “The Flywheel” in 2015 and has never looked back since. However, her best-known work is “Amelia Westlake” that was the winner of the Ethel Turner Prize for Young People’s Literature in 2019 and he Young Adult Book Prize in 2018. The novel made the shortlist for the Indie Book Awards in 2019 and the Young Adult Fiction Victoria Premier’s Literary Award in the same year. It made the finals for the Queensland Literary Awards in 2018 and was republished as “Amelia Westlake Was Never Here” in the United States. Her first novel “The Flywheel” would later be published as “Get it Together Delilah!” in the United States and Germany and was the winner of the Ampersand Prize. It also made the shortlist for the Gold Inky by the Centre for Youth Literature and the Book of the Year for Older Readers by CBCA. Apart from her novels, Erin has also been involved in writing short fiction which has been featured in several anthologies and journals such as Going Down Swinging, Best Australian Stories, Southerly, Overland, and The Age. She has also been a writer in residence at different schools and lectured in several creative writing seminars and workshops.

She has been writing since she was in middle school and remembers making up stories which she says was one of her favorite things to do. By the time she was fifteen, she started entering short story competitions. When Erin went to college, she was lucky enough to find many other students interested in writing that introduced her to a variety of opportunities for budding authors. Some of the opportunities she grabbed included The Writers House in the Blue Mountains, where she was a resident and a mentorship at the Australian Society of Authors. In 2011, she got a grant from the Australia Council of Emerging Writers that gave her the funds she needed to pen a young adult novel. This gave her the confidence she needed to start writing her manuscript and also the time she needed to make her dream into reality. In two years of writing, she had completed the manuscript for her debut novel “The Flywheel.” Not two years later, the manuscript was the winner of the Ampersand Project by Hardie Grant Egmont. Working with professional editors, she learned a lot about writing and publishing when she finally published her debut in 2015.

Erin Gough stumbled into young adult fiction almost by accident when she was looking for detailed instructions on how to kiss a boy. However, it was from reading Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” that she first read about lesbians kissing. It was mind-blowing that such a thing could find its way into what was deemed legitimate literature. Woolf expressed her secret desires for sex creative expression and rebellion most of which now find expression in her novels. Erin then went on to read queer fiction from authors such as Sarah Waters and Dorothy Porter, all of whom made her recognize feminism long before she heard of the term. As a teen, she also loved reading about strong women such as Josephine Alibrandi of Looking for Alibrandi. The protagonist has to deal with prejudice since she lives in a middle-class community while her mother is working-class, because she is a woman and because she was born out of wedlock. Set in Sydney, she could relate to the settings and the characters as she recognized traits of people she went to school and lived with as she dealt with her sexuality. The novel was the most significant influence on the queer novels she would later go on to write.

“Amelia Westlake Was Never Here” by Erin Gough is a novel about how opposites attract and hate to love that has as its protagonists Will Everheart and Harriet Price. Harriet was born to wealthy parents who taught her strict discipline. She is a well-behaved girl who is smart and talented in swimming and tennis. Harriet thought her girlfriend would make a good partner though all her friend is interested in is in taking advantage of her. Conversely, Will Everheart feels out of place in a school full of privileged and wealthy students. She is hell-bent on social change but her outspoken stance soon gets her labeled as a troublemaker. All this happens even as she tries to define her relationship with Nguyen Natasha her newest friend. Will and Harriet end up working together on a project that intends to showcase the dark realities of the education system. For their project they take the penname Amelia Westlake. From the snobbish behavior of the administrators to the English teacher that shows clear favoritism and the lascivious swimming instructor, they collaborate and in a series of shenanigans hope to bring about change. From working together, their relationship soon goes from rivalry to something closer. It is a fun and smart young adult romantic comedy that has excellent commentaries on racism, sexism, elitism, and sexual harassment.

Erin Gough’s “Get it Together Delilah” is the story of Delilah Green, a seventeen-year-old high schooler. She is not having the best of years as her father is depressed after her mother left him to go live with another man. Her father had left home to go try to heal his broken heart, leaving her to manage the family cafeteria. She thinks it would be an easy job but then there is homework to do, not to mention a clique of mean girls determined to make her life a living hell. Her best friend will also not stop making her feel guilty even as another of her best friends is dealing with the threat of jail if Delilah cannot think of a good solution. But that is all insignificant when Delilah thinks of Rosa the beautiful girl that comes out every night to dance in the street. Things take a turn when Rosa makes a surprise appearance at the cafeteria. And then Rosa seems to be just as interested in Del but they cannot seem to make it all work.