Her heritage goes back to the time of Black Loyalists in that province and Maxine has drawn heavily on that rich cultural past. Her writing is intense, personal, evocative and accessible in nature which earned her the titles of Milton Acorn People's Poet of Canada for 1988. When her first book, Borrowed Beauty, was published by Pottersfield Press in 1987, it received rave reviews and sold out in a few months. Now in its third printing, Borrowed Beauty has provne to be a bestselling Canadian title, reaching far beyond the usual audience for poetry.