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Maxine Beneba Clarke: How Decent Folk Behave

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Maxine Beneba Clarke is a literary force. Her award-winning short fiction, non-fiction and poetry fearlessly confront the power and privileges at play in contemporary Australia.

Clarke’s fourth poetry collection, ​​How Decent Folk Behave, is a heartfelt and political exploration of the circumstances and forces that have led to our present pandemic-afflicted times. Its poems span topics including climate catastrophe, domestic violence, racism, feminism, motherhood, surveillance, screen dependency and the Black Lives Matter movement.

How Decent Folk Behave has been chosen as the November book in the 2021 Melbourne City Reads initiative, supported by inner-city bookshops. At this special event, Clarke will perform poems from this powerful new collection, and discuss their inspiration with performer and broadcaster Brian Nankervis.

Supported by the City of Melbourne, Victorian Government and ABC Radio Melbourne

The online bookseller for this event is Mary Martin Bookshop

Featuring

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of the acclaimed memoir The Hate Race, the award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the poetry collections Carrying The World and How Decent Folk Behave, and many other books for adults and children. Her forthcoming poetry collection is It’s The S... Read more

Brian Nankervis

Poet, performer and broadcaster Brian Nankervis is co-host of The Friday Revue on ABC Radio Melbourne and RocKwiz on SBS television. He is also the creator of the much-loved tortured street-poet character Raymond J Bartholomeuz.

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