Maxine Beneba Clarke is a widely published Australian writer of Afro-Carribean descent. She is the author of the multi-award-winning story collection Foreign Soil, which has been set on high-school curriculums; the memoir The Hate Race, which won the NSW Premier?s Literary Award - Multicultural; the poetry collection Carrying the World, which won the 2017 Victorian Premier?s Award for Poetry; and the children?s book The Patchwork Bike, a 2017 CBCA Honour Book.