Maxine Clarke is a Caribbean-Australian poet based in Melbourne. She has a background in copyright and human rights law and has written for many publications, including The Age, Crikey, Koori Mail and The Big Issue. Maxine blogs sporadically at her poetry slamming blog: slamup.blogspot.com, and her poetry chapbook Original Skin (2008) is published by Picaro Press. Maxine is currently working on an ending for her first novel. The words ‘I am your father’ and a laboured description of the main character’s fall down a huge shaft in the death star have been suggested as an appropriate conclusion to the book. She has no idea what this means, but knows she probably should, and is therefore most ashamed to confess this. Photo by Michael Reynolds.