image of person or book cover 4649521291130149327.jpg
Cover image courtesy of publisher.
y separately published work icon Foreign Soil selected work   short story  
Issue Details: First known date: 2014... 2014 Foreign Soil
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'In this collection of award-winning stories, Melbourne writer Maxine Beneba Clarke has given a voice to the disenfranchised, the lost, the downtrodden and the mistreated. It will challenge you, it will have you by the heartstrings. This is contemporary fiction at its finest.' (Publication summary)

Exhibitions

17218018
17024093

Teaching Resources

Teaching Resources

This work has teaching resources.

Teachers' notes via publisher's website.

Notes

Contents

* Contents derived from the Sydney, New South Wales,:Hachette Australia , 2014 version. Please note that other versions/publications may contain different contents. See the Publication Details.
David, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 1-15)
Harlem Jones, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 16-28)
Hope, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 29-59)
Foreign Soil, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 60-85)
Shu Yi, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 86-100)
Railton Road, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 101-121)
Gaps in the Hickory, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 121-172)
Big Islan, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 173-191)
The Stilt Fishermen Of Kathaluwa, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 192-243)
The Sukiyaki Book Club, Maxine Beneba Clarke , single work short story (p. 244-265)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Sydney, New South Wales,: Hachette Australia , 2017 .
      image of person or book cover 4446703489105393634.jpg
      Image courtesy of publisher's website.
      Extent: 288p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 10 January 2017.

      • Contains the new story 'Aviation'.

      ISBN: 9780733637988, 0733637981
    • New York (City), New York (State),
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Atria Books ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 4383482209561111519.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 256 p.p.
      ISBN: 1501136364, 9781501136368
    • Boston, Massachusetts,
      c
      United States of America (USA),
      c
      Americas,
      :
      Little, Brown ,
      2017 .
      image of person or book cover 7223400450543198764.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 304 p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published 9 March 2017.
      ISBN: 147215147X, 9781472151476 (pbk)

Other Formats

  • Sound recording.
  • Large print.

Works about this Work

On Writing and Risk Maxine Beneba Clarke , 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)

Form, Frame and Allegory in Recent Transnational Short Fictions Michael R. Griffiths , 2017 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australian Humanities Review , November no. 62 2017;

Sri Lankan Tamil Asylum Seeker on a Leaky boat finds his story interspersed with that of an Australian case worker in a wavering marriage, a ‘spoiled Emirati rich girl’ ridicules a Ukrainian sex worker online, a young Peruvian man cares for his girlfriend while concealing their relationship from her overbearing Gujarati mother. Which recent collection of short stories are these vignettes blurbing from? The answer is that each comes from a separate collection: the first from Maxine Beneba Clarke’s Foreign Soil, the second from Ali Alizadeh’s Transactions, the third from Daniel Alarcón’s War By Candlelight. Yet, in the context of these short stories and their paratexts, this list could ironically also be said to read as a cohesive blurb. Such global short stories of overlap and interconnectivity have become a staple of the transnational publishing world, with such Australian-based writers as Beneba Clarke, Alizadeh, and Nam Le winning multiple awards, making multiple bestseller lists, and joining a wider transnational phenomenon which includes such U. S. based writers as Alarcón and Jhumpa Lahiri. In this essay, I build on the work of Ken Gelder, Wenche Ommundsen, Nicholas Jose, Lachlan Brown and Marita Bullock to proximately examine the way Beneba Clark, Alizadeh and Le—the Australian writers on this list—engage with the transnational by calling attention to the ambivalent position of migrant and diasporic inscriptions of self-reference (Gelder).' (Introduction)

Fishermen and Little Fish : Migration and Hospitality in Maxine Beneba Clarke’s ‘The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa’ Natalie Edwards , Christopher Hogarth , 2016 single work criticism
— Appears in: Portal , vol. 13 no. 2 2016;
'In this article, we argue that Maxine Beneba Clarke’s tale ‘The Stilt Fishermen of Kathaluwa,’ in Foreign Soil (2014), is a provocative representation of migration in contemporary Australia. At a time in which the world is facing its largest migration since the Second World War and in which Australian border policy is making headlines around the world, Clarke’s tale is a powerful intervention in discourses of contemporary Australian identity and nationhood. We demonstrate that the tale is a subtle manipulation of what McCullough terms the ‘refugee narrative structure’ since it carefully undercuts the myth of a nation as a coherent narrative across time and space. By juxtaposing the tales of an illegal migrant and a volunteer case worker, and by setting the tale largely in a functioning detention centre, Clarke gives voice to the voiceless and draws parallels between individuals on different sides of the insider/outsider binary. The encounter that finally takes place between them implicates the reader very directly in discourses of contemporary migration and border policy.'
The New Australian Literary Frontier : Writing Western Sydney Matt McGuire , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 17 February 2015;
Young Novelists Speak with Original Voices Linda Morris , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23-24 May 2015; (p. 17) The Canberra Times , 23 May 2015; (p. 13)
[Review] Foreign Soil Martin Shaw , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , February vol. 93 no. 3 2014; (p. 18)

— Review of Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba Clarke , 2014 selected work short story
Tales of Oppressed Reveal Exciting Talent Thuy On , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sun-Herald , 27 April 2014; (p. 13)

— Review of Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba Clarke , 2014 selected work short story
Few Illusions as the Voices of the Oppressed Have Their Say Owen Richardson , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 17 May 2014; The Age , 17 May 2014; The Canberra Times , 17 May 2014;

— Review of Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba Clarke , 2014 selected work short story
Australian Fiction Ed Wright , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 21-22 June 2014; (p. 21)

— Review of Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba Clarke , 2014 selected work short story ; Captives Angela Meyer , 2014 selected work short story ; Meatloaf in Manhattan Robert Power , 2014 selected work short story ; The Tribe Michael Mohammed Ahmad , 2014 selected work novella
Voices Susan Midalia , 2014 single work review
— Appears in: Australian Book Review , June-July no. 362 2014; (p. 24)

— Review of Foreign Soil Maxine Beneba Clarke , 2014 selected work short story
Global Local Martin Shaw , 2014 single work interview
— Appears in: Books + Publishing , February vol. 93 no. 3 2014; (p. 23)
Maxine Beneba Clarke Jane Sullivan , 2014 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 3-4 May 2014; (p. 30-31) The Age , 3 May 2014; (p. 28) The Canberra Times , 3 May 2014; (p. 19)
Stella Prize 2015 Shortlist : Three Debut Fiction Authors Nominated Madhvi Pankhania , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 12 March 2015;
Stella Prize 2015: The Shortlisted Authors on the Stories behind Their Books Emily Bitto , Christine Kenneally , Sofie Laguna , Ellen van Neerven , Maxine Beneba Clarke , Joan London , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Guardian Australia , 17 April 2015;
Young Novelists Speak with Original Voices Linda Morris , 2015 single work column
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 23-24 May 2015; (p. 17) The Canberra Times , 23 May 2015; (p. 13)
Last amended 24 Sep 2020 11:31:44
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