Published 2 June 20111 June 2012 · Writing / Main Posts Child’s play Maxine Beneba Clarke (or Strategies for buying an hour and a half of writing time from your eight-month-old) Turn on the laptop, crank up the gas heater and choose one of the following: 1. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with a tub of cottage cheese 2. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with an entire loaf of bread 3. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with a pot full of lukewarm spaghetti 4. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with an entire copy of the Age newspaper 5. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with a pot full of lukewarm rice 6. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with a pot full of lukewarm baked beans 7. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with a tub of grated cheese 8. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet with a pot full of mashed potato 9. Sit her naked on a plastic sheet 10. Sit her naked WARNING: Plastic sheets are not suitable for children of any age and contact with infants may result in serious injury or death. The Age newspaper is not suitable for children of any age and contact with infants may result in serious injury, death or prolonged bouts of depression. Sitting naked is not suitable for children of any age and may result in serious injury, death or nudist tendencies in later life. Playing with or consuming their own faeces is not recommended for children of any age and may result in serious illness or death. Actual writing time is estimated at an hour and a half but may vary from baby to baby and may be as little as ten minutes. Actual clean-up time is two hours. 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 8 November 20248 November 2024 · Poetry Announcing the final results of the 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers Editorial Team After careful consideration, judges Karen Wyld and Eugenia Flynn have selected first place and two runners-up to form the final results of this year’s Nakata Brophy Prize! 4 October 202418 October 2024 · Main Posts Announcing the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers 2024 longlist Editorial Team Sponsored by Trinity College at the University of Melbourne and supporters, the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, established in 2014 and now in its ninth year, recognises the talent of young Indigenous writers across Australia.
