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 many books for children and adults, notably a short story collection entitled Foreign Soil, and her 2016 memoir The Hate Race, which she adapted for a stage production debuting in February 2024. In 2023, 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]
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).[9]
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.[10]
Clarke's collection of short stories Foreign Soil won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award,[6] the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award (ABIA) for Best Literary Fiction,[11] the 2015 Indie Book Award for Best Debut Fiction,[12] and was shortlisted for the 2015 Stella Prize.[13]
Her memoir The Hate Race (2016) won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award,[14] 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.[15] Her picture book The Patchwork Bike (2016), illustrated by Melbourne artist Van Thanh Rudd, won the Crichton Award for Children's Book Illustration.[16]
In 2021, Clarke was voted the "People's Choice" for the triennial Melbourne Prize for Literature, for an outstanding body of work.
Clarke has received several writing awards and fellowships, including:
Clarke's works include:[1]