Maxine, can you introduce us to your latest work? That's just out before Christmas, When We Say Black Lives Matter. Now, today, I Want to talk to you about all of your kids' books and typically your 2020 kid's book. So thank you for giving up your time yet again for The Garret. I am slightly obsessed with your works and your career, and I will probably invite you back and stalk you again to come back a forth time. This doesn't happen often, and I am just going to own it publicly. Thanks for having me on.ĪSTRID: You are the third person to appear on The Garret three times. Maxine has appeared on The Garret twice before - the first interview was a live event about Growing Up African in Australia, and the second was a close reading of her memoir The Hate Race.ĪSTRID: Welcome to The Garret at Home, Maxine. She has since written three more picture books - Wide Big World (2018), Fashionista (2019) and When We Say Black Lives Matter (2020). The Patchwork Bike, Maxine's first picture book with Van T. In 2019 Maxine co-edited the anthology Growing Up African in Australia. The Hate Race, a memoir about growing up black in Australia won the NSW Premier's Literary Award Multicultural NSW Award 2017 and was shortlisted for an ABIA, an Indie Award, the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards and Stella Prize. Maxine has published three poetry collections including Carrying the World, which won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for Poetry 2017 and was shortlisted for the Colin Roderick Award. She was also named as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists for 2015. Her critically acclaimed short fiction collection Foreign Soil won the ABIA for Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2015 and the 2015 Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Matt Richell Award for New Writing at the 2015 ABIAs and the 2015 Stella Prize. Maxine's short fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in numerous publications including Overland, The Age, Meanjin, The Saturday Paper and The Big Issue.

Maxine is a widely published Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. Maxine Beneba Clarke explores her gorgeous picture book, When We Say Black Lives Matter, in this 2020 interview.

Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke