Maxine Beneba Clarke is a West Indian-Australian poet (Original Skin Picaro Press, 2008; Gil Scott Heron is on Parole Picaro Press, 2009), writer and journalist. She is a poetry slam champion whose non-fiction, poetry and fiction have been widely published in the Age, Crikey, the Koori Mail, Going Down Swinging, and Overland. She writes a poetry blog at slamup.blogspot.com