Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the ABIA-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race, three picture books…

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Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the ABIA-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, and the memoir The Hate Race. Her picture books for children include The CBCA Honour Book The Patchwork Bike, We Know a Place (an ode to bookstores), and the critically acclaimed illustrated poem When We Say Black Lives Matter, which was longlisted for the UK’s Kate Greenaway medal. Maxine is the author of the poetry collections Carrying the World (which won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Award for Poetry), How Decent Folk Behave, the ABIA-winning It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, and its 2025 follow up Stuff I’m (Not) Sorry For: 99 new poems for young people. Her most recently collection is Beautiful Changelings. From 2023-2025 she was the inaugural Poet in Residence at The University of Melbourne.

Festival Events

FAMILY FUN DAY Poetry and Picture Books with Maxine Beneba Clarke

DATE March 29 TIME 9:30 am WHERECummings Room Newcastle City Hall Book now

Poetry and Publics

DATE March 29 TIME 1:00 pm WHEREUniversity of Newcastle NUspace X207 Book now

Poetry Salon @ The Press

DATE March 29 TIME 3:00 pm WHEREThe Press Book House Book now

BY THE ARTIST

A light blue book cover featuring a Black woman in white clothing mostly covered by a collage of a pair of butterfly wings. The title and author name are in black letters at the top and bottom of the page.

Beautiful Changelings

Newcastle Writers Festival would like to acknowledge the Awabakal and Worimi peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the festival takes place, and recognise their continuing connection to land, water and community. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging and extend this respect to all First Nations people attending our festival.

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