World Poetry Day with Maxine Beneba Clarke

In celebration of World Poetry Day, join poet and author Maxine Beneba Clarke for a workshop exploring lyrical free verse, funny acrostic poems, heartful haiku and bouncy rhyming couplets.  

Based on Maxine’s ABIA winning poetry collection It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, and the recently released Stuff I'm (NOT) Sorry For: 99 more poems for young people, this workshop encourages students to fall in love with the possibilities of poetic language.  

Have a pencil and paper ready, and come prepared to write some poetry!  

This session is suitable for students in Years 4 to 7.

This event will be held online via a Zoom webinar. You will be sent the Zoom link to join after you register. For help using Zoom, go here.

Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of over 14 books for adults and children, including the ABIA and Indie award-winning short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the critically acclaimed bestselling memoir The Hate Race, the self-illustrated picture book When We Say Black Lives Matter, which was longlisted for the UK’s Kate Greenaway Medal, and the CBCA Honour Book The Patchwork Bike (illustrated by Van T Rudd), which won the 2019 Boston Globe Horn Prize for Best Picture Book. Her poetry collections include Carrying the World, which won the 2017 Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Poetry, How Decent Folk Behave, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, which won the 2024 ABIA for Book of the Year for Younger Readers, and the recently released poetry collections Beautiful Changelings and Stuff I'm (Not) Sorry For: 99 more poems for young people. Maxine was the inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence at the University of Melbourne (2023–2025). 

This session, artworks, film and sound clips are protected by copyright and may not be recorded, reproduced or used in any way without the express written consent of the State Library of NSW.