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Maxine Beneba Clarke Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Maxine Beneba Clarke
Photo: Connor Thomas O'Brien

Maxine Beneba Clarke

How to pronounce Maxine Beneba Clarke: buh-NEE-buh

Maxine Beneba Clarke Biography

Maxine Beneba Clarke is a novelist, poet, and editor living in Melbourne, Australia. In addition to being a recipient of the Hazel Rowley Fellowship for Biography she is also the winner of the 2013 Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript, the Debut Fiction Indie Award and the Literary Fiction Book of the Year in the Australian Book Industry Awards. Foreign Soil is Maxine's first book.



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Interview

Memoirist and poet Maxine Beneba Clarke discusses her first book of short stories, Foreign Soil, which swept the Australian book awards when first published in 2015, and is now available in the USA.

Maxine Beneba ClarkeMaxine Beneba Clarke came to fiction through poetry, both written and spoken word. She was born in Australia to a Jamaican father and Guyanese mother. Her parents immigrated to the UK before settling in Australia. Her books include a memoir, The Hate Race; a children's book, The Patchwork Bike; and the poetry collections Carrying the World, Gil Scott Heron Is On Parole, and Nothing Here Needs Fixing. She won the 2017 Victorian Premiers Literary Award for Poetry. Foreign Soil won Literary Fiction Of the Year, Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) 2015, Debut Fiction, Indie Book Awards 2015, and the Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award 2013. The Sydney Moring Herald named her Best Young Novelist of the Year 2015.

Naomi Benaron is a fiction writer, poet, and social activist. She has worked extensively with the African refugee population in her community, teaches online through the Afghan Women's Writing Project, has been involved with aiding Rwandan genocide survivors and is committed to working to end genocide on a global scale. Her short story collection, Love Letters from a Fat Man, won the 2006 Sharat Chandra Prize for Fiction, and her novel, Running the Rift, won the 2010 Bellwether Prize for Fiction and was ...

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Books by this Author

Books by Maxine Beneba Clarke at BookBrowse
Foreign Soil jacket
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Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Maxine Beneba Clarke but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Leila Aboulela

    Leila Aboulela

    Leila Aboulela won the first Caine Prize for African Writing and is the author of many novels. Minaret was longlisted for the 2006 Orange Prize. The Translator was one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year. ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Foreign Soil

    Try:
    Elsewhere Home
    by Leila Aboulela

  • Uwem Akpan

    Uwem Akpan

    Uwem Akpan was born in Ikot Akpan Eda in southern Nigeria. After studying philosophy and English at Creighton and Gonzaga universities, he studied theology for three years at the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. He was ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Foreign Soil

    Try:
    Say You're One of Them
    by Uwem Akpan

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