By Maxine Beneba ClarkePoetryHachette Australia
Carrying the World
A haunting visit to the International Museum of Slavery, in Liverpool England. A feisty young black girl pushing back against authority. The joy and despair of single parenthood. A love-hate relationship with words.
This collection brings the best of a decade-long international poetry career to the page.
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Maxine Beneba Clarke is a widely published Australian writer of Afro-Caribbean descent and the author of the poetry collections Gil Scott Heron Is on Parole and Nothing Here Needs Fixing. Maxine's short fiction, non-fiction and poetry have been published in numerous publications including Overland, the Age, Meanjin, the Saturday Paper and the Big Issue.
Her critically acclaimed short fiction collection Foreign Soil (2014) won the ABIA for Literary Fiction Book of the Year 2015, the 2015 Indie Book Award for Debut Fiction. Maxine was also named as one of the Sydney Morning Herald's Best Young Novelists for 2015, as well as being shortlisted for the Matt Richell Award for New Writing at the 2015 ABIAs and the 2015 Stella Prize. A collection of Maxine's poetry Carrying The World, her memoir The Hate Race and her first children's picture book The Patchwork Bike were all published in 2016.
Judges’ report
Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Carrying the World is electric. Clarke is a master storyteller and lyricist allowing us to observe humanity through the immense telescope of culture, emotion and power. Poems swing and hit hard. This collection is a decade in the making and it was wonderful to read poems in here that featured in the dynamic Gil Scott Heron is on Parole (Picaro Press, 2009) and Nothing Here Needs Fixing (Picaro Press, 2013). Her compelling poems sing off the page and will be heard by many. ‘she told me/ quite unequivocally/ that i would rise’.
Extract
i is the revolution
your transaction has been processed by paypal
this purchase will appear on your credit card bill as
item: revolution
number of items: 1
cost: $AUD priceless
the revolution thanks you for choosing itself
the revolution is downloading onto your ipad
and being transferred onto your iphone
it is an iRevolution
the revolution is i
i is the revolution
the revolution is available in ebook form
the revolution’s full text is available for 99c on amazon
the revolution comes in 4 short podcasts
that can be worn as a usb bracelet
the revolution has been turned on
you must follow the revolution
it will be abbreviated to fit its own twitter feed:
the revolution will drop all vowels / capital letters
and apostrophes
and present itself in short profundities of 140 characters
or less
join @the revolution as it LOLs and WTFs
the revolution will have a GSOH / as
the mo fo moves in
& takes over cyberspace
dig the revolution:
take out a sub
the revolution’s RSS feed will bitch-slap your inbox
every night at around about 12 o’clock
do not reply to the revolution
do not trash the revolution
the revolution is not spam
you cannot click here to unsubscribe to the revolution
do not drag the revolution into your junk mail can
you cannot RTS the revolution:
the revolution is anonymous
the revolution lives nowhere
the revolution is every return address
forward the revolution to everyone you know:
the revolution is a virus no norton has an anti for
infection is the revolution’s cure
befriend the revolution
graffiti the revolution’s wall
the revolution invites all 500 million fans
to the facebook event of itself
rsvp to the revolution’s event
it is the revolution: show yourself attending
the revolution will remind you of itself by SMS
the revolution has a silent number
but you can forward the revolution on by text
to find the revolution
type: revolution
into your GPS
give the revolution its own ringtone
do not turn the revolution off
the revolution must be able to reach you at all times
and at full volume
download the revolution’s soundtrack
from itunes
the revolution is here
the revolution is real
the revolution is now
the revolution does not exist in second life
the revolution has just been wiki leaked
the revolution is i
i is the revolution
The Victorian Premier’s Literary Awards shortlist
