Maxine Beneba Clarke on the value of time

Maxine Beneba Clarke is one of Australia’s most prolific authors and illustrators. From her memoir, The Hate Race, to the children’s picture book, The Patchwork Bike, to the poetry collection, Carrying The World, there is one consistent throughline. Each of these works has won awards and it is this history that has cemented Maxine Beneba Clarke’s status in this country’s creative scene.

However, it is not commercial or critical acclaim that defines success for Maxine personally. The projects she has loved aren’t necessarily the most accomplished on paper, but the ones that have been entirely joyous to create.

In March, we sent Maxine to Ngunnawal Country to explore the nation’s capital as part of our A Room of One’s Own series, in partnership with VisitCanberra. We also gave her the most valuable thing any writer could ask for – time.

“So much of the creative process relies on actually having that time,” says Beneba Clarke. “I’m a parent, I have two kids. And between that and working, it’s that space to sit somewhere – sit on a boat, and kind of go, ‘okay, my mind is clear, what ideas are actually going to come?’

During her time away, the author went to the Enlighten Festival, stayed at the Little National Hotel, ate delicious lemon and sugar crepes at the markets and enjoyed a coffee at Kita Kafe. She even took a boat trip on Lake Burley Griffin that called for a 5am start; an early rise she wasn’t initially thrilled about but one that became well-worth it.

“I took all these photographs of the sun rising over water and thought, I need to do more things that are not within my comfort zone,” says Maxine. “It was one of my favourite experiences being on Ngunnawal Country, being on that boat on the water.”

The author also took part in some sightseeing that was a little more within her comfort zone, stopping by the National Portrait Gallery to see Portrait23: Identity, a major contemporary art exhibition that runs through to June 2023.

The exhibition displays work from 23 artists and collectives, and their exploration of who they are. As Beneba Clarke herself was a contributor to the book publication of Portrait23: Identity, she enjoyed seeing the artworks in person.

“As someone who is now illustrating, seeing visual arts and the way that other people approach portraiture or landscapes or whatever, it’s become [a bigger] part of my practice.”

The evolution of Maxine’s career has been a product of both desire and necessity.

“It’s very difficult to make a living,” says Beneba-Clarke. “And that’s partly why my projects are so diverse. I do make a living from my work, but it’s also from my adjacent work.”

When she’s working on her own projects, though, it’s passion that fuels her.

“I don’t tend to put pen to paper unless it’s something I feel really, really passionate about,” she says. “Whether it’s a social issue, whether it’s climate change, whether it’s anti-blackness or anti-racism, I have to feel really passionate about the theme or the conception of the project that I’m working on.”

So, what is her advice for deciding when to pursue an idea? There are three questions she believes you need to ask yourself.

“As a creator, it’s not only, what do you want to make?” says the author. “What can you get published, in terms of the market, and someone actually helping you to put it out? And also, should you?”

Once those three questions are answered, it’s about finding the time to write, to try and to fail and try again. And that time at the beginning – that spacious moment where a thought arrived and crystallised into something worth pursuing – is the thing that allows you to keep going.

Making space for that time is something Beneba Clarke was more conscious of when she returned home. “Society wouldn’t see it as work and it’s so much a part of the creative process,” she says. “Maybe I need to find a way to work a little bit more of this into my practice.”

An addition that will no doubt lead to more awards and, most importantly, more joy.

A Room of One’s Own is proudly supported by VisitCanberra. For more from this series, catch up on the wisdom of Clare Bowditch, Jamila Rizvi and Clementine Ford.