Books by Maxine Beneba Clarke

A timely, powerful and much-needed picture book exploring the background to the Black Lives Matter movement for young children.

People of African descent have been in Australia for at least 200 years, yet their stories are largely missing from Australian writing. Australians of the African diaspora have arrived here in many different ways- directly from the continent; via the Caribbean, the Americas and the United Kingdom; making the journey to Australia over one generation, or several. What is it like to grow up African in Australia? This anthology, compiled by award-winning author Maxine Beneba Clarke with curatorial assistance from writers Ahmed Yussuf and Magan Magan, showcases diverse voices, experiences and stories in order to answer that question. Accounts from well-known authors and high-profile cultural and sporting identities sit alongside newly discovered voices of all ages, with experiences spanning regions, cities and generations. All of the pieces call for understanding, oftentimes challenging stereotypes, always demanding respect. Growing Up African aims to defy, question or shed light on the many stereotypes that currently exist about the vibrant extended African community in Australia.

'Maxine Beneba Clarke is a powerful and fearless storyteller...Clarke is the read deal, and will, if we're lucky, be an essential voice in world literature for years to come' - Dave Eggers, international bestselling author

WINNER- Indie Book Awards 2015 (Best Debut Fiction Book)WINNER- The ABIA Award (Literary Fiction Book of the Year) 2015WINNER- Sydney Morning Herald Best Young Australian Novelists of 2015WINNER- Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award 2013'Foreign Soil will stay with you with the force of elemental truth. Clarke is the real deal' Dave EggersIn this collection of award-winning stories, Melbourne writer Maxine Beneba Clarke has given a voice to the disenfranchised, the lost, the downtrodden and the mistreated. It will challenge you, it will have you by the heartstrings. This is contemporary fiction at its finest.In Melbourne's western suburbs, in a dilapidated block of flats overhanging the rattling Footscray train lines, a young black mother is working on a collection of stories.The book is called Foreign Soil. Inside its covers, a desperate asylum seeker is pacing the hallways of Sydney's notorious Villawood detention centre, a seven-year-old Sudanese boy has found solace in a patchwork bike, an enraged black militant is on the warpath through the rebel squats of 1960s Brixton, a Mississippi housewife decides to make the ultimate sacrifice to save her son from small-town ignorance, a young woman leaves rural Jamaica in search of her destiny, and a Sydney schoolgirl loses her way.The young mother keeps writing, the rejection letters keep arriving . . .'A woven tapestry of the shared experience of living in a country that is not your own' Stylist