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AbstractHistoryArchive Description
'From one of Australia's most exciting writers, and the author of the multi-award-winning FOREIGN SOIL, comes THE HATE RACE: a powerful, funny, and at times devastating memoir about growing up black in white middle-class Australia.'
Source: Publisher's blurb.
Adaptations
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The Hate Race
2024
single work
drama
'Inspired by the best-selling, award-winning memoir by Caribbean-Australian writer Maxine Beneba Clarke, The Hate Race is an unflinching exploration of the complexities of race in Australia, and the universal search for belonging. Making its theatrical premiere on the Malthouse stage, this powerful story stars Zahra Newman (Wake In Fright), who embodies all characters from the book with astonishing honesty and theatricality.
'The Hate Race follows Maxine’s childhood in Sydney’s western suburbs, as she navigates the sting of otherness. From everyday street encounters to schoolyard battles, Maxine’s story exposes the realities of growing up the child of Black migrants in a predominantly white society. This inventive re-imagining, filled with poetry, music and beats, invites audiences to experience Maxine’s world —exposing biases, challenging societal norms, and asking us to foster empathy and understanding as we seek an inclusive future.
'The Hate Race is more than a theatrical experience—it is a call to action. This is how we change.'
Notes
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Dedication: For my mother
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
Other Formats
- Also large print.
- Dyslexic edition.
- Sound recording.
Works about this Work
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Broadening Your Students' Horizon : A Case Study of Text Selection in the Diverse and Changing World
2022
single work
criticism
— Appears in: English in Australia , vol. 57 no. 1 2022; (p. 15-27) -
On Writing and Risk
2020
single work
essay
— Appears in: Meanjin , Autumn vol. 79 no. 1 2020;'Writing and risk is a topic that has preoccupied my thoughts for at least the last few years.' (Introduction)
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The Home We Know
2019
single work
review
— Appears in: Australian Women's Book Review , vol. 28 no. 1 2019; (p. 21-26) 'AUSTRALIAN national identity has been constructed on being built upon survival. The words “hate” and “race” contain divisive meanings—yet place them side-by-side, as Maxine Beneba Clarke does, and they transform into a metonymy for the dominance of White culture in Australia.'(Introduction)
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Maxine Beneba Clarke on The Hate Race
2018
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Stella Interviews 2018;'Maxine Beneba Clarke is shortlisted for the 2017 Stella Prize for her memoir The Hate Race. Maxine is the first author to be shortlisted for the Stella Prize twice, after her short story collection, Foreign Soil, was recognised in 2015. In this special Stella interview, Maxine shares some thoughts about the process of memoir writing, the pull of the poetic form, and what it’s really like to write while female.' (Introduction)
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What I’m Reading – Kate Mildenhall
2017
single work
column
— Appears in: Meanjin Online 2017;
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Maxine Beneba Clarke, The Hate Race
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 23 July 2016;
— Review of The Hate Race : A Memoir 2016 single work autobiography -
The Hate Race Review : Maxine Beneba Clarke's Urgent Writing Is Unique and Vital
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: Brisbane Times , 22 July 2016;
— Review of The Hate Race : A Memoir 2016 single work autobiography 'A few years ago, my writers' workshop, based in Bankstown, left a meeting to celebrate at the nearby sports club – a place that, despite its location and status as a glorified RSL, makes amazing pizza. I walked through the door without a second thought, as did the two Anglo-Australian men I was walking with. A few steps behind us was our colleague Mohammed, and as he entered the building he was immediately intercepted by security, asked to take off his hat and show his licence, and told not to give any cheek. ...' -
Casual, Overt Racism That Erodes Us All
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 August 2016; (p. 20)
— Review of The Hate Race : A Memoir 2016 single work autobiography -
[Review] The Hate Race
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Advertiser , 27 August 2016; (p. 40)
— Review of The Hate Race : A Memoir 2016 single work autobiography -
Review : The Hate Race
2016
single work
review
— Appears in: The Monthly , September no. 126 2016; (p. 56)
— Review of The Hate Race : A Memoir 2016 single work autobiography -
A Pair of Ragged Claws
2016
single work
column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 6-7 August 2016; (p. 21) -
November in Nonfiction
2016
single work
review
essay
— Appears in: Overland [Online] , November 2016; -
Unflinching, Luminous, and Moving, the Stella Shortlist Will Get under Your Skin
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: The Conversation , 18 April 2017;'There are certain books that have the knack of getting under your skin. This is why George Bernard Shaw declared Charles Dickens’ Little Dorrit to be a far more “seditious” text than Karl Marx’s Das Capital.
'What he was getting at is the power of books to work on your emotions. The intellect can be too cold an instrument to engender empathy, to bring people who are distant from you into your “circle of concern”. And it is precisely this, as philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues, that matters for the pursuit of social justice.
'In 2017, the Stella Prize judges have again come up with a shortlist of books that will engage your brain, but also your heart. They illuminate all the aspects of life that make us frail and vulnerable – sickness, dying, inequality – realities that many of us would prefer to ignore.' (Introduction)
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Maxine Beneba Clarke on The Hate Race
2018
single work
interview
— Appears in: The Stella Interviews 2018;'Maxine Beneba Clarke is shortlisted for the 2017 Stella Prize for her memoir The Hate Race. Maxine is the first author to be shortlisted for the Stella Prize twice, after her short story collection, Foreign Soil, was recognised in 2015. In this special Stella interview, Maxine shares some thoughts about the process of memoir writing, the pull of the poetic form, and what it’s really like to write while female.' (Introduction)
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Challenging Racial Truths Experienced through Deft Storytelling
2017
single work
essay
— Appears in: Antipodes , June vol. 31 no. 1 2017; (p. 232-233)'The Hate Race begins with a short summation of Clarke's parents' meeting and arrival in Australia as a young, black British couple, then quickly settles into Maxine's own experience. Maxine grew up in a middle-class family full of Play-Doh and tadpoles and Cabbage Patch dolls. The Hate Race draws our attention to how far we are from living in a postracial world, yet Clarke's critique feels compassionate-angry but not without hope, brutally honest but not without acknowledging the love of family and refuge of loyal friends.' (Publication abstract)
Awards
- 2018 shortlisted Kibble Literary Awards — Nita Kibble Literary Award
- 2017 winner New South Wales Premier's Literary Awards — Multicultural NSW Award
- 2017 shortlisted Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIA) — Australian Biography of the Year
- 2017 shortlisted The Stella Prize
- 2017 shortlisted Indie Awards — Nonfiction