Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of many books for adults and children, including the short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race, the self-illustrated picture book When We Say Black Lives Matter (longlisted for the UK’s Kate Greenaway medal), and the CBCA Honour Book The Patchwork Bike (illustrated by Van T Rudd), which won the 2019 Boston Globe Horn Prize for Best Picture Book. Her poetry collections include Beautiful Changelings, Carrying the World, How Decent Folk Behave, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, and Stuff I'm (NOT) Sorry For: 99 more poems for young people. Maxine was the inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence at the University of Melbourne (2023-2025).