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The Saturday Portraits
The year is 2014, editor Erik Jensen contacts short fiction writer Maxine Beneba Clarke, and convinces her to write creative portraits for a new national newspaper, THE SATURDAY PAPER. The next four years will be a journalistic baptism of fire. She will come face to face with Prime Minister Tony Abbott; spend exactly nine minutes with Hollywood film star Hugh Jackman; write a love letter to Prince; be escorted out of David Jones for stalking Santa Claus; watch porn star Buck Angel striptease; eat slut cupcakes with feminist Karen Pickering; troll a local racist fried chicken eatery; hold audience with the Australian Ambassador to China; covertly profile One Plus One presenter Jane Hutcheon; share the stage with writer Roxane Gay; sip green tea with dissident Chinese artist Ai Weiwei, and exchange emails with President Obama. These are The Saturday Portraits.
- GenresNonfiction
272 pages, Paperback
Published October 29, 2019
6 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Maxine Beneba Clarke
27 books395 followersMaxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian writer and slam poetry champion of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the author of the poetry collections Gil Scott Heron is on Parole (Picaro Press, 2009) and Nothing Here Needs Fixing (Picaro Press, 2013), the title poem of which won the 2013 Ada Cambridge Poetry Prize.
Her debut short story collection, Foreign Soil, won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and will be published by Hachette Australia in early 2014.
As a spoken word performer, Maxine's work has been delivered on stages and airways, and in festivals across the country, including at the Melbourne Writers Festival (2008, 2010, 2013), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2012), the Arts Centre (2009) and the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival (2013).
Maxine’s short fiction, essays and poetry have been published in numerous publications, including Overland, the Age, Big Issue, Cordite Poetry Review, Harvest, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Mascara, Meanjin, Unusual Work and Peril.
She has been poetry editor of the academic journal Social Alternatives (2012), and spoken word editor for Overland literary journal (2011-12).
Maxine has conducted poetry classes and workshops for many organisations, including RMIT, The Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE), Writers Victoria, Kensington Neighbourhood House and the Society of Women Writers (Vic).
Her debut short story collection, Foreign Soil, won the 2013 Victorian Premier's Award for an Unpublished Manuscript and will be published by Hachette Australia in early 2014.
As a spoken word performer, Maxine's work has been delivered on stages and airways, and in festivals across the country, including at the Melbourne Writers Festival (2008, 2010, 2013), Melbourne International Arts Festival (2012), the Arts Centre (2009) and the Melbourne Jazz Fringe Festival (2013).
Maxine’s short fiction, essays and poetry have been published in numerous publications, including Overland, the Age, Big Issue, Cordite Poetry Review, Harvest, Voiceworks, Going Down Swinging, Mascara, Meanjin, Unusual Work and Peril.
She has been poetry editor of the academic journal Social Alternatives (2012), and spoken word editor for Overland literary journal (2011-12).
Maxine has conducted poetry classes and workshops for many organisations, including RMIT, The Victorian Association for the Teaching of English (VATE), Writers Victoria, Kensington Neighbourhood House and the Society of Women Writers (Vic).
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
November 25, 2019
Book of The Year.
August 6, 2020
A fascinating focus on the details of the lives of so many different people, this book is a study in minutiae, and it does it beautifully. While I found the portraits extremely short, it was a delight to see the author use such a small quantity of words to put a such incredible illustrations on the page. The portraits don’t shy away from being critical either, which I appreciate- they’re not simply pandering. The multifaceted focus on so many different people from so many different walks of life was wonderful, and I have to say this book left me wanting more of them!
January 22, 2020
Maxine is very cool and a very excellent writer and I now absolutely want to read more of her work. Some of these portraits are very beautiful and poignant and shattering. I particularly loved the ones about Uncle Jack Charles, Ernest Price, Roxane Gay and Tony Abbott.
There were some Portraits that seemed to end far too prematurely where I wished she’d given us more - but perhaps this is more a compliment than a criticism.
I particularly love that Maxine weaves into the narrative her own experience of juggling young children and motherhood and making ends meet while being a writer. She does this with such intimacy you feel like you’re there in her house with her, scrawling out a portrait at the crack of dawn.
The insight she affords into her editorial discussions with Erik Jenson is also fascinating to the non-writer, and endearing.
Overall this is a great book and I hope she compiles another of her poetry.
There were some Portraits that seemed to end far too prematurely where I wished she’d given us more - but perhaps this is more a compliment than a criticism.
I particularly love that Maxine weaves into the narrative her own experience of juggling young children and motherhood and making ends meet while being a writer. She does this with such intimacy you feel like you’re there in her house with her, scrawling out a portrait at the crack of dawn.
The insight she affords into her editorial discussions with Erik Jenson is also fascinating to the non-writer, and endearing.
Overall this is a great book and I hope she compiles another of her poetry.
May 3, 2021
Absolutely wonderful. ❤️
December 10, 2019
Anything MBC touches immediately gets a shot at my top book for the year, and this is no exception. If you want something filled with honesty and humour then you really don't need to look anywhere else but here. My favourites in here were Santa, Roxane Gay and Melissa Lucashenko. I've definitely got a few more people to learn more about now!
December 26, 2019
It is important to read the prologue and the epilogue to get a full picture of this body of work. Some surprising observations.
January 21, 2020
I have always loved Maxine's spoken word pieces but I have never actually read one of her books and the premise of creating a portrait of someone in words is interesting enough on its own anyway. For the most part, she does it very well; there are particular portraits where she really shines, and I think these are the ones where it reads more as an insight into her worldview and less as a literary exercise.
The only one in the entire book that I really couldn't get into at all was her portrait of Samba the Great. The writing style is so radically different from the rest of the collection that it just took me out of the experience altogether. In the epilogue she explains that this is the only portrait which was actually written for a different publication originally, so it makes total sense in hindsight, but I think it'd be a lot less jarring if that explanation was presented *with* the piece and not at the end of the book.
The only one in the entire book that I really couldn't get into at all was her portrait of Samba the Great. The writing style is so radically different from the rest of the collection that it just took me out of the experience altogether. In the epilogue she explains that this is the only portrait which was actually written for a different publication originally, so it makes total sense in hindsight, but I think it'd be a lot less jarring if that explanation was presented *with* the piece and not at the end of the book.
January 10, 2020
Miniatures with Intelligence
Maxine writes with wit and insight of her encounters with people who already have profiles. She notes clothing, food, manners of gait - the look of her subjects and draws with words a portrait that captures things of deep insight and import of those people. I can’t wait to read her next book!
Maxine writes with wit and insight of her encounters with people who already have profiles. She notes clothing, food, manners of gait - the look of her subjects and draws with words a portrait that captures things of deep insight and import of those people. I can’t wait to read her next book!
May 20, 2020
I've read a few books so far this year. This is my favourite so far. Each portrait is a gem and I love the way the author inserts herself into the story. I particularly liked how Uncle Jack's, Roxanne Gay's, Tony Abbott's and Hugh Jackman's. There were some great stories about people I hadn't heard of as well but I felt like I knew better by the end of their short portrait.
July 9, 2021
Dipping in and out of this book for a number of months has been an intriguing and enjoyable experience. Maxine’s words paint clear and insightful pictures into what she notices and discovers in people - and presents us with thoughtful and often moving and powerful portrayals of their character, personas, words and deeds.
June 16, 2020
This is a great collection of portraits. I learnt about people I had not heard of before, I cried, I laughed and I was sent down a few googling rabbit holes. I loved Maxine's voice and getting to know her a little through her writing. And reading POC voices and POC stories is always a great idea.
April 27, 2020
Such a great, easy read. I really enjoyed this book
July 14, 2021
Portraits
Great word-journeys. Revelatory portraits. Enjoyed each and every one - thank you.
Precision that’s word - precision which made this an effortless read. And enjoyable.
Great word-journeys. Revelatory portraits. Enjoyed each and every one - thank you.
Precision that’s word - precision which made this an effortless read. And enjoyable.
March 4, 2020
I'd never read any of Maxine Beneba Clarke's work until I received The Saturday Portraits in a blind book swap at Christmas.
In 2014, editor Erik Jensen approches Clarke who has been writing short fiction and poetry to write for a new national newspaper called The Saturday Paper. He asks her to write what he calls creative portraits. In these portraits she brings a diverse range of characters to life over the course of a few years. From then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Hugh Jackman and Roxane Gay through to a love letter to Prince and stalking Santas, The Saturday Portraits compiles her series of creative portraits together in one impactful whole.
Each portrait is a masterpiece which in just a few pages highlights a particular moment in each subjects life woven through with Maxine's own life experiences as she interviews them. I really can't explain how incredible her writing is. She doesn't interview her subjects in a traditional sense but you leave each portrait with a sense of having learnt something personal about both the subject and the author.
There is also something quite wonderful about reading the entire series of portraits in one book topped and tailed with an insightful prologue and epilogue. The sum of the whole in this case seems even more amazing than its parts.
I loved this work and was sad to come to the end. Maxine Beneba Clarke is so very talented and I'd highly recommend this book.
In 2014, editor Erik Jensen approches Clarke who has been writing short fiction and poetry to write for a new national newspaper called The Saturday Paper. He asks her to write what he calls creative portraits. In these portraits she brings a diverse range of characters to life over the course of a few years. From then Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Hugh Jackman and Roxane Gay through to a love letter to Prince and stalking Santas, The Saturday Portraits compiles her series of creative portraits together in one impactful whole.
Each portrait is a masterpiece which in just a few pages highlights a particular moment in each subjects life woven through with Maxine's own life experiences as she interviews them. I really can't explain how incredible her writing is. She doesn't interview her subjects in a traditional sense but you leave each portrait with a sense of having learnt something personal about both the subject and the author.
There is also something quite wonderful about reading the entire series of portraits in one book topped and tailed with an insightful prologue and epilogue. The sum of the whole in this case seems even more amazing than its parts.
I loved this work and was sad to come to the end. Maxine Beneba Clarke is so very talented and I'd highly recommend this book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews