Bernardine Evaristo MBE FRSL FRSA is a British author.
She was born in London to an English mother and Nigerian Father and was raised in Woolwich, south east London.
Contents |
Evaristo is the author of six books that include: Lara, a verse novel, based on her family history with roots in England, Nigeria, Ireland, Germany and Brazil (Bloodaxe Books 2009). It is a revised and expanded (by a third) version of an earlier edition of the book; Hello Mum, a Quick Reads novella about teenage knife crime (Penguin 2010); Blonde Roots, her first fully prose novel, in which she created a fictional world where Africans enslave Europeans (Penguin UK 2008/Penguin US 2009); Soul Tourists, a novel that fuses poetry and prose fiction. Stanley and Jessie drive across Europe in the late Eighties. En route Stanley encounters many ghosts of colour from European history including Pushkin, Shakespeare’s 'Dark Lady of the Sonnets', Mary Seacole, the Chevalier de St. George and Alessandro dei Medici (Penguin 2005); The Emperor’s Babe, a verse novel about a black girl called Zuleika who grows up in Roman London nearly 2000 years ago. (Penguin UK 2001/ Penguin US 2002).
She co-edited the anthology of Black and Asian poets 'Ten' with poet Daljit Nagra (Bloodaxe Books 2010.) This is part of The Complete Works project. (See below). She also co-edited, with poet Karen McCarthy, a special issue of Wasafiri called Black Britain: Beyond Definition (Routledge 2010) and she co-edited the New Writing Anthology NW15 in 2007 with the novelist Maggie Gee (Granta/British Council)
Evaristo writes book reviews for national newspapers including the Guardian and Independent. She has also written for theatre, magazines and written drama and fiction for BBC Radio 4.
She has held many writing fellowships and residencies including Georgetown University, Washington DC; Barnard College, New York; University of the Western Cape, South Africa; the Virginia Arts Festival and Writing Fellow at the University of East Anglia, UK. Since 1997 she has been on over seventy-five international writing tours which involve writer-residencies and fellowships, book tours, teaching creative writing workshops as well as conference and literary festival appearances. Teaching includes: a visiting tutor at Goldsmith's College, University of London; a Creative Writing Fellow at Oxford Brookes University; teaching the six month inaugural UEA/Guardian newspaper course in creative writing for beginners; and she is Reader in Creative Writing at Brunel University.
In 2006 Bernardine Evaristo initiated an Arts Council report into why black and Asian poets were not getting published in the UK that revealed that under 1% of all poetry books are by poets of colour. When the report was published she initiated a poets' mentoring scheme called The Complete Works (TCW) with Spread the Word [1] literature development agency. TCW imentored ten poets who worked with ten of Britain's leading poets over the course of two years 2008-2010.
In 2009 she became a patron of Westminster Befriend A Family, a twenty year-old voluntary organisation that works with disadvantaged families in Westminster.
2010 The Emperor's Babe was one of the 'Times' (UK) '100 Best Books of the Decade'
2010 The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (shortlist)
2010 Poetry Book Society Commendation for poetry anthology 'Ten', co-ed w/ Daljit Nagra
2009 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (nominated)
2009 Big Red Read Award (Fiction and overall winner)
2009 Awarded an MBE in Queen's Birthday Honours List
2009 Winner, Orange Prize Youth Panel Award
2009 Orange Prize for Fiction (longlist)
2006 Elected a Fellow, Royal Society of Arts
2004 Elected a Fellow, Royal Society of Literature
2003 NESTA Fellowship Award
2000 Arts Council Writers Award
1999 BT EMMA Best Book Award
Evaristo's books have been a 'Book of the Year' 12 times in British newspapers.
She lives in London with her husband.
"Hello Mum", a novella (Penguin UK, 2010)
"Lara" - new, expanded version (Bloodaxe Books, 2009)
Blonde Roots (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin, 2008 & Riverhead/Penguin, US in 2009)
Soul Tourists (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin, 2005)
The Emperor's Babe (Hamish Hamilton/Penguin, 2001)
Lara (Angela Royal Publishing, 1997)
"Island of Abraham" (Peepal Tree, 1994)