Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent, whose work includes fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her collection of short stories Foreign Soil won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Unpublished Manuscript Award, the 2015 ABIA for Best Literary Fiction, the 2015 Indie Award for Best Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the 2015 Stella Prize. Her memoir The Hate Race (2016) won the New South Wales Premier's Literary Award, and her poetry collection Carrying The World won the 2017 Victorian Premier's Prize for Poetry. Her picture book The Patchwork Bike (2016), illustrated by Melbourne artist Van Thanh Rudd, won the Crichton Award for Children's Book Illustration. Clarke is a contributor to The Saturday Paper, and is included in the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Afric