the monoliterature machine (a poem)

by all means
hail christos tsiolkas
& nam le
bt these men did not
trailblaze for me

js like zadie smith
& monica ali
did not usher in the dawn
of a new british breed...

those of us
given stamps
to cross the border
fuel the monoliterature machine

i / am about to birth a daughter
& one day
she will learn to read

Peril and Mascara Joint Launch

Several years ago I bought my brother, a Sydney muso, a t-shirt which read: Don’t Yoko My Band. The shirt got me thinking about the stigma and stereotypes attached to being the partner of a celebrated artist and indirectly to the poem Yoko Was Always Going to be a Problem.

The poem has just been published online in edition 9 of Peril this week. The launch of Peril #9 will take place tomorrow evening in Melbourne at 6pm as per the below details. As well as the amazing performances mentioned on the below invite, I’ll be onstage paying homage to Yoko, and possibly reading from my short story Shu Yi, which has also been published in edition 9 and can be read online here.

Asialink Winter Writing Series presents
Mascara Literary Review vs Peril Magazine
June 22, Sidney Myer Asia Centre

Peril Magazine and Mascara Literary Review join
forces for a genre-bending mashup of Asia-focused literary and pop culture, Tuesday 22 June at the Sidney Myer Asia Centre.

Join MC and standup comedian Shalini Akhil for a guided tour through Tibetan activist communities in Dharamsala, new Singaporean poetry, and an East Asian Steve Irwin as you’ve never seen him before.

Peril vs Mascara is a magazine-style night of short and sharp readings and performance, and includes winter-warming drinks for all.

The event marks the launch of the latest editions from these two
new-generation Asian-Australian magazines.

Date and time: 6pm, Tuesday June 22, 2010
Venue: Yasuko Hiraoka Myer Room, Level 1, Sidney Myer Asia Centre, The University of Melbourne
Cost: Free
Enquiries: Adam Hills, a.hills@asialink.unimelb.edu.au,
phone (+61) 3 9035 4026
Register Online: www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/calendar

Dear Editor, When You Rejected My Poem I Think You Were Mistaken.

Dear Editor/s,

I know you rejected the attached poem from the last issue of X, but I honestly, and quite objectively I believe, think you made a big mistake. The poem is one of my best, and it’s also perfect for your publication.

Bearing the above in mind, please take a fresh look at the piece and re- consider it for your next edition. I sincerely hope you see the light.

Yours,

Maxine Beneba Clarke
.........................................................................................

Of course, I didn’t exactly send the above email. But what I did do was re-submit the exact same poem to very next issue from the issue of the magazine it was rejected from, with no accompanying explanation.

I re-submitted the poem because I really believed in the poem, and because I could think of no more perfect home for it than that particular journal (which has now, incidentally, accepted the poem for publication).

After months of silence, I figured the editor/s were baffled at the cheek of me in re-submitting a piece that had already been rejected, and probably wisely decided not to encourage my egotistical indignation by responding to my submission in any manner at all.

Then came the acceptance email. Different editor/s? Different submission standard? Genuine re-think?

In any case, the moral of the story is, the editor’s decision may not be final. Just don’t go quoting me on that.

How come she gets a horse?

Scene: Driving through the Australian countryside back to Melbourne from Hanging Rock. Tarzan is at the wheel, four year old Boy and I are in the back.

Boy: Did you see that girl? That girl back there riding a horse?
Me: (warily) Yes
Boy: She didn’t look very old. How old do you think she is?
Me: I don’t know, maybe about eight.
Boy: Was that her very own horse that she owns herself?
Me: Uhh...probably. It looked like she lives on that farm back there.
Boy: (eyes widening) She has a pet horse. I want a pet horse. Please can I have a pet horse?
Me: Uhh...that would be a no.
Boy: (indignant) Why not? How come she gets a horse?
Me: She lives on a farm. Our yard is too small for a horse.
Boy: (gazing at me hopefully) We could get a bigger yard...
Me: I’m sorry sweetheart, you can’t have a horse. That girl lives on a farm – her parents are probably farmers. That’s why they have a horse. It probably helps on the farm. They know how to look after a horse.
Boy: How come she gets to have farmers for parents?
Me: You’re very lucky too darling, you have poets for parents – you get to go out to poetry readings all the time and see Mama perform her poems. You also get to read and hear really amazing poems all the time. That girl has probably never been to a poetry reading. Imagine that!
Boy: (looking at me dubiously) But I don’t want the poetry parents. Why can't I have the farmer parents?
Tarzan: (splutters with laughter from the front seat).
Boy: It’s not funny!

King Dudas

dem a-raging roun kingston town jus a-lookin fe dudas
babylon burn de tenement down te groun jus-a lookin fe dudas
but dat dudas dem a-talk bout im nyah walk here
de children chantin come out / come out christopher coke
come / come out wherever ye are
de street children laughin
come out / come out christopher coke
come / come out / babylon be here
dem police a-raging roun kingston town jus a-lookin fe dudas
babylon burn de tenement down te groun all-a lookin fe dudas
but dem nevva gwan find de man dem lookin for
nyah mattah how many dem president men
a-come bangin downg de door
in dis place dudas is nat good for nuttin drug dealer
im fix up dem tivoli pickney schools / hail dudas
im-a keep de peace an community rule / dudas
(mi seh) lawd / to some-a dem de man almost a healer
im dudas de benefactor / nat government detractor

dudas im long gone underground
an de president a fool if im tink im can be found
de children chantin come out / come out christopher coke
come / come out wherever ye are
de street children laughin
come out / come out christopher coke
come/ come out / babylon be here
de children laughin at de president
an king dudas smirk
from where im hiding an im hear

Harvest Issue Five Launch

My fiction extract Railton Road was published in the last edition (issue 4) of Harvest magazine. Since there wasn't a launch for that particular issue, I'll be rocking the poetry stage (with Kate & Robbie Hendry on vocals and percussion) at the launch of issue 5 alongside sets by Josephine Rowe, Nathan Curnow and Ruby Murray. Come along, it's sure to be an absolute blast!

6.30pm
Friday 11 June
360 Little Lonsdale St, Melbourne

White Australia Has a Blackface History: Overland #199

My personal essay White Australia Has a Blackface History has now been published as an online-only addition to Overland #199. You can read the essay here, but be sure to also buy the edition for amazing writing on Book pirates, the pros and cons of the Greens, Paul Kelly’s insider histories, raising funds for the NLF, and more.

Short & Twisted 2010

Below is the opening to the short story Underground. Underground is an extract from my fiction book Black Lazarus, and has just been published in Short & Twisted 2010 (Celepene Press).

Winston Gray came home early on Friday nights and dished out chocolate smarties he’d bought for Eddison and Augustine on the way home from work. Next, he’d lay out his going out clothes: a pair of black trousers and the bright purple shirt with a wide sharp collar his wife had made him for their wedding anniversary. After his long shower, he would call Sonny to the bathroom to watch him shave. Sonny was delegated the privilege of holding his hand towel and supplying shaving cream and a wet flannel for foam excess.

Next, Winston would splash aftershave all over his coffee coloured upper torso and stand there in his jeans: naked from the waist up, flexing from every angle, pausing to examine every profile. He’d put on his shirt and his silver leather shoes with the pointed toes, and waltz downstairs asking his daughter Augustine “Now me girl pickney, you gwan marry handsome ting like me when you grown? See yere dese teeth? White like pearl from deepest ocean, an straight. Mek a handsome smile, lawd knows. And dis yere hair: thick an black like it nyah gwan fall out even when mi grow old. Ye lucky hear mi? Nat all likkle black girl gat such-a han’some dadda te boast about”...

Underground is an extract from the fiction manuscript Black Lazarus, the winning manuscript of the 2008 Overland Novel Search. Previous extracts have been published in Page Seventeen and Harvest. Click here for details of the upcoming Short & Twisted launch on June 27, or to purchase a copy of Short & Twisted 2010.