About the Author

Maxine Beneba Clarke is a widely published Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent and the author of the poetry collections Gil Scott Heron Is on Parole and Nothing Here Needs Fixing. 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. Her critically acclaimed short fiction collection Foreign Soil (2014) won the ABIA for Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2015, the 2015 Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction, and Maxine was also named as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists for 2015, as well as being shortlisted for the Matt Richell Award for New Writing at the 2015 ABIAs and the 2015 Stella Prize. A collection of Maxine's poetry Carrying The World, her memoir The Hate Race and her first children's picture book The Patchwork Bike will be published in 2016.

Reviews

one of the most compelling voices in Australian poetry this decade - Overland 'Maxine Beneba Clarke is a powerful and fearless storyteller, and this collection (FOREIGN SOIL) - written with exquisite sensitivity and yet uncompromising - will stay with you with the force of elemental truth. Clarke is the real deal, and will, if we're lucky, be an essential voice in world literature for years to come - Dave Eggers Clarke is a confident and highly skilled writer - Hannah Kent [Of Maxine's work] amazing - Tim Minchin Clarke lobs a molotov under any reader expecting a literary comfort zone ... this marks the arrival of a major new voice in the Australian literary landscape - Bookseller & Publisher