Bernardine Evaristo facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Bernardine Evaristo
|
|
|---|---|
Evaristo in 2018
|
|
| Born |
Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo
28 May 1959 Eltham, London, England
|
| Education | Eltham Hill Grammar School for Girls |
| Alma mater | Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama; Goldsmiths College, University of London |
| Occupation | Novelist, critic, poet, playwright, academic |
|
Notable work
|
Lara (1997) The Emperor's Babe (2001) Girl, Woman, Other (2019) |
| Spouse(s) | David Shannon |
| Awards | Booker Prize, 2019 Indie Book Award for Fiction 2020 British Book Awards: Fiction and Author of the Year 2020 Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award (2025) |
Bernardine Evaristo is a famous English writer and professor. She was born on May 28, 1959. In 2019, her novel Girl, Woman, Other won the prestigious Booker Prize. This made her the first Black woman to ever win this award.
Bernardine Evaristo is also a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London. She is the President of the Royal Society of Literature, which is a very old and respected group for writers. She is the first Black person and only the second woman to hold this important role since the society started in 1820.
She cares a lot about making sure all kinds of writers and artists are included. She started the RSL Scriptorium Awards in 2024. These awards give writers a quiet place to work by the sea. She also created the Brunel University African Poetry Prize and helped start a program called The Complete Works. This program helped poets of color get their work published. She also co-founded Spread the Word, an agency that helps writers, and Britain's first theatre company for Black women, called Theatre of Black Women.
Bernardine Evaristo has received many awards and honors for her work. She was given the title of Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2020 for her contributions to literature. This is a special award from the Queen.
Contents
Early Life and Education
Bernardine Evaristo was born in Eltham, a part of south-east London. She grew up in Woolwich with her seven brothers and sisters. Her mother was English, and her father was Nigerian. Her father was a welder and the first Black local council member in their area.
Bernardine went to Eltham Hill Grammar School for Girls. When she was 12, she joined a youth theatre group. She said this group helped her decide to work in the arts for her whole life. She later studied at Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama, finishing in 1982.
In the 1980s, she helped start Theatre of Black Women. This was the first theatre company of its kind in Britain. In the 1990s, she organized the first big conferences in Britain about Black British writing and theatre. She also helped start Spread the Word, an agency that supports writers in London.
Bernardine continued her studies at Goldsmiths College, University of London. She earned her doctorate degree in creative writing in 2013. In 2019, she became the Woolwich Laureate. This meant she wrote about her hometown, Woolwich, which she had left when she was 18. In 2022, she received the "Freedom of the Borough" award from her local area.
Her Books and Stories
Bernardine Evaristo's first book was a collection of poems called Island of Abraham, published in 1994. She has written many books, including novels and verse novels. Her stories often explore the experiences of people from the African diaspora. She likes to try new ways of writing, mixing the past with the present, and fiction with poetry.
One of her verse novels, The Emperor's Babe (2001), is about a Black teenage girl growing up in Roman London almost 2,000 years ago. This book was chosen by The Times as one of the 100 Best Books of the Decade in 2010. It was also made into a play for BBC Radio 4.
Her novel Blonde Roots (2008) is a funny story that flips the history of the transatlantic slave trade. In the book, Africans enslave Europeans instead. This book won several awards and was nominated for others.
Another important book is her verse novel Lara (2009). It tells the story of her own family history, going back over 150 years. It also talks about her childhood in London as part of a mixed-race family. Her short novel Hello Mum (2010) was chosen as "The Big Read" for a county in England and was also made into a BBC Radio 4 play.
Her novel Mr Loverman (2013) is about an older Caribbean man living in London who has a secret. It won awards for LGBT fiction.
Girl, Woman, Other
Bernardine Evaristo's novel Girl, Woman, Other (2019) is a very special book. It tells the stories of 12 different Black British women. They are all different ages, from 19 to 93, and come from various backgrounds. The book shows their hopes, challenges, and how their lives connect.
In 2019, Girl, Woman, Other was chosen for the Booker Prize longlist and then the shortlist. On October 14, 2019, it won the Booker Prize. Bernardine Evaristo shared the award with Margaret Atwood. This was a huge moment because it made Evaristo the first Black woman and the first Black British author to win the prize.
The novel was very popular. It was one of Barack Obama's favorite books of 2019. In 2020, it won the British Book Awards for Fiction Book of the Year and Author of the Year. It also became the first book by a Black woman and Black British writer to reach number one on the UK paperback fiction charts.
Recent Books
Bernardine Evaristo's ninth book, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up, was published in 2021. It is a memoir, which means it tells her own life story. Her tenth book, Feminism (2021), is about how British women of color are shown in art.
She has also written many articles, essays, and book reviews for well-known magazines and newspapers like The Guardian and Vogue.
Helping Other Writers
Bernardine Evaristo has done a lot to help other writers. In 2020, she was a guest editor for The Sunday Times Style magazine. She made sure it featured many young Black women artists and activists. She has also been a guest editor for other literary magazines like Mslexia and The Poetry Review.
In 2020, it was announced that Bernardine Evaristo is creating a new book series with Penguin Random House publishers. The series is called "Black Britain: Writing Back." It brings back older books by Black British authors that might have been forgotten. The first six books in this series were published in 2021.
Media and Public Speaking
Bernardine Evaristo has been featured in two major TV documentaries: The South Bank Show and Imagine. She has also given many interviews on TV and radio, including for BBC programs like HARDtalk and Desert Island Discs.
After she won the Booker Prize, she received many more invitations for interviews than she had in her entire career before!
She has taught creative writing since 1994. She has also been a visiting writer at many universities around the world, including Dartmouth College in the USA and the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She is currently a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.
Bernardine Evaristo has traveled a lot to give talks and workshops. She has spoken at many literary festivals and conferences. In 2020, she gave a speech at the Frankfurt Book Fair. She asked publishers to hire more people from different backgrounds. She believes this will help them find and publish more diverse stories.
The Complete Works
In 2006, Bernardine Evaristo helped create a report that showed very few poems by Black and Asian poets were being published in the UK. Because of this, she started The Complete Works mentoring program.
This program helped 30 poets of color. They received guidance and support over one or two years. Many of these poets went on to publish their own books, win awards, and become well-known for their poetry.
Other Activities and Awards
Besides her own writing, Bernardine Evaristo has judged many literary prizes. She was the head judge for the Caine Prize for African Writing and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2012. In 2021, she chaired the judging panel for the Women's Prize for Fiction.
She has also served on committees for many important organizations, including the Royal Society of Literature and the Arts Council of England. A portrait of Bernardine Evaristo from 2002 is kept in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
Royal Society of Literature
In 2022, Bernardine Evaristo became the President of the Royal Society of Literature. She is the first writer of color and only the second woman to lead this organization in its 200-year history. She said she was proud to be the leader of such an important group that is working hard to include everyone.
She has helped the RSL become more diverse. She supported the "40 under 40" scheme and the RSL Open initiative. These programs aim to bring in younger and more diverse writers to the RSL. She also started the RSL Scriptorium Awards in 2024. This program offers her cottage on the Kent coast for free to ten writers each year. This helps writers who need time and space to work.
Personal Life
Bernardine Evaristo is married to writer David Shannon. They met in 2006.
Awards and Recognition
Bernardine Evaristo has won many awards and honors throughout her career. Here are some of the most important ones:
- 2009: Awarded an MBE for her services to literature.
- 2019: Won the Booker Prize for Girl, Woman, Other.
- 2020: Awarded an OBE for her services to literature.
- 2020: Won British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year and Author of the Year.
- 2020: Named one of 100 Great Black Britons.
- 2022: Appointed President of the Royal Society of Literature.
- 2025: Received the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award.
Books
- 1994: Island of Abraham (poems)
- 1997: Lara (novel)
- 2001: The Emperor's Babe (verse novel)
- 2005: Soul Tourists (novel)
- 2008: Blonde Roots (novel)
- 2010: Hello Mum (novella)
- 2013: Mr Loverman (novel)
- 2019: Girl, Woman, Other (novel)
- 2021: Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (memoir)
- 2021: Feminism (non-fiction)
Plays
- 1982: Moving Through
- 1982: Tiger Teeth Clenched Not to Bite
- 1983: Silhouette
- 1984: Pyeyucca
- 2002: Medea – Mapping the Edge
- 2003: Madame Bitterfly and the Stockwell Diva
- 2020: First, Do No Harm
See also
In Spanish: Bernardine Evaristo para niños
