The Patchwork Bike

About the Author

Maxine Beneba Clarke (Author)

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian poet and writer of Afro-Caribbean descent. She is the ABIA and Indie award-winning author of Carrying the World (2016), Foreign Soil (2017) and The Hate Race (2018). She is the author of five books for children, including the CBCA and Boston Globe/Horn Prize award-winning picture book The Patchwork Bike (2016, illustrated by Van T Rudd), and the critically acclaimed Wide Big World (2018, illustrated by Isobel Knowles). Maxine is the author-illustrator of two picture books, Fashionista (2019) and When We Say Black Lives Matter (2020). She also illustrated the picture book 11 Words for Love (2022), written by Randa Abdel-Fattah. We Know A Place is the third picture book she has both written and illustrated.

Van T Rudd (Illustrator)

Van T Rudd is an award winning street artist, sculptor, painter and social justice activist based in Melbourne.

He has exhibited his work widely around Australia and internationally. He won the 2015 Sampari West Papua Art Exhibition's People's Choice Award for his sculpture Let Rage, Unity and Love Take Form, and the NAVA (National Association of Visual Artists) Ignition Award for the exhibition Van Rudd vs Julia Gillard (2011). He was a two-time finalist (2007 and 2009) in the Sunshine Coast Art Prize for his paintings 100 000 to 400 000 and Freedom Furniture respectively, and a finalist in the Metro 5 Art Award (2004). In 2007, his Carriers Project was selected by Kultour and toured to major cities and towns around Australia. The Patchwork Bike is his first children's book.