Overland literary journal > Latest > Main Posts > open letter to the president
Published · Main Posts

open letter to the president

This is a pretty dodgy video – the mic kept cutting out and the second poem’s crap, but it’s the only video recording (I can’t actually remember a video being taken but there you go) I have of my Open Letter To the President. It was written long before Obama was the next black. What can I say, finger on the pulse, trend-setter and all that. He hasn’t replied yet, but I imagine he will soon. Any day now … Mr President?

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian author and slam poet of Afro- Caribbean descent. Her short fiction collection Foreign Soil won the 2015 ABIA Award for Best Literary Fiction and the 2015 Indie Award for Best Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her memoir, The Hate Race, her poetry collection Carrying the World, and her first children’s book, The Patchwork Bike, will be published by Hachette in late 2016.

More by Maxine Beneba Clarke ›

Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places.

If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate.

Related articles & Essays

· Prizes

Announcing the 2024 Judith Wright Poetry Prize shortlist

· Prizes

Announcing the 2024 Neilma Sidney Short Story Prize shortlist