Maxine Beneba Clarke

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Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent, whose work includes fiction, non-fiction, plays and poetry. She is the author of over fifteen books for children and adults, notably a short story collection entitled Foreign Soil (2014), and her 2016 memoir The Hate Race, which she adapted for a stage production debuting in February 2024. Her poetry collections include Carrying the World (2016), How Decent Folk Behave (2021), It's the Sound of the Thing: 100 New Poems for Young People (2023), Stuff I'm (NOT) Sorry For: 99 more poems for young people (2025), and Beautiful Changelings (2025). From 2023-2025, Clarke was the inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence at the University of Melbourne.

Maxine Beneba Clarke was born and raised in the Sydney suburb of Kellyville.[1] Her mother was an actress of Guyanese heritage and her father an academic of Jamaican descent, who migrated to Australia from England in 1976.[2][3] She has said: "Cousins, aunts, and uncles of mine have settled all over the world: including in Germany, America, Switzerland, Australia, England, and Barbados. Mine is a complex migration history that spans four continents and many hundreds of years: a history that involves loss of land, loss of agency, loss of language, and loss, transformation, and reclamation of culture."[4]

Beneba Clarke attended school in Kellyville and Baulkham Hills,[5] before going on to earn a Bachelor of Creative Arts and law degree (with majors in creative writing and human rights) from the University of Wollongong.[1][6]

She moved to Melbourne.[5]

Career

Maxine Beneba Clarke performing at the Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival, May 2018

Clarke published a number of short works, before publishing a collection of short stories that focuses on the African diaspora, called Foreign Soil, in 2014. She went on to publish many more works of different genres, including poetry.[1]

She has been a contributor to The Saturday Paper.[7] Her work is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby.[8]

In December 2022 Clarke was announced as the University of Melbourne's inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence,[1] named in honour of Australian poet Peter Steele (1939–2012). The residency, which began in January 2023, was planned to last for a year;[9] however, this was extended until 2025.[10]

Clarke wrote a stage adaptation of The Hate Race for Malthouse Theatre in Melbourne, which debuted in February 2024. It is performed as a one-woman show by Zahra Newman, with sounds and music provided by musician Kuda Mapeza.[11]

Recognition and awards

Clarke's collection of short stories Foreign Soil won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award,[6] the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Best Literary Fiction,[12] and the 2015 Indie Book Award for Best Debut Fiction,[13] and was shortlisted for the 2015 Stella Prize.[14]

Her memoir The Hate Race (2016) won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award,[15] and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize, the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for non-fiction and an ABIA for non-fiction.[citation needed]

Her poetry collection Carrying The World won the 2017 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry.[16] Her picture book The Patchwork Bike (2016), illustrated by Melbourne artist Van Thanh Rudd, won the Crichton Award for Children's Book Illustration.[17]

In 2021, Clarke was voted the "People's Choice" for the triennial Melbourne Prize for Literature, for an outstanding body of work.[citation needed]

Clarke has received several writing awards and fellowships, including:

Works

References

External links

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