Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo is a writer.

She writes many stories and poems.

She won a big prize for her book. This book is about twelve women. They live in Britain.

She also helps other writers. She started a group for poets. This helps them grow.

She even has a small home for writers. They can stay there to work. It is by the sea.

She loves the arts very much. She wants everyone to join in.

Bernardine Evaristo is a famous English author.

She writes many kinds of books. She writes stories, poems, and plays. Some of her books mix poetry with fiction. This is a special way of writing.

Her book, Girl, Woman, Other, won a big award. This award is called the Booker Prize. She was the first Black woman to win it. The book tells the lives of twelve Black British women. These women are all different. They have different ages and backgrounds.

Evaristo also helps other artists. She wants more people to be included in art. She helped start a theatre company for Black women. She also started a prize for African poetry.

She even helps writers find a place to work. She uses her own home on the coast. Ten writers can stay there each year. They can use the quiet space to write. She also started a prize for women writers over 60. She used her own prize money to help start it. Evaristo has won more than 90 awards for her work.

Bernardine Evaristo is a famous English author and a professor.

She writes many different things like stories, poems, and plays. Her work often mixes different styles together. For example, she might mix fiction with poetry. She also likes to mix the past with the present. Some of her books explore the history of the African diaspora. This means she writes about people with roots in Africa living in other places. Her writing helps people see new ways to look at the world.

Evaristo has a very special way of telling stories. In her book, Girl, Woman, Other, she uses something called fusion fiction. This book follows twelve Black British women. These women are all very different from one another. They have different ages, from 19 to 93 years old. They also have different backgrounds and lives. This book won the Booker Prize in 2019. She was the first Black woman to win this big award. It was a very special moment for her and for many readers.

She has been a leader in the world of books for a long time. Evaristo was the President of the Royal Society of Literature for four years. She was the first Black or Asian person to hold that role. She was also the second woman to be President. In 2025, she became President Emerita after her term ended. She also teaches at Brunel University of London. She is a visiting professor at the University of Oxford too. She uses her skills to help teach others how to write.

Evaristo has worked hard to help other writers succeed. She co-founded an agency called Spread the Word in 1995. She also helped start the Theatre of Black Women in the 1980s. This was the first theatre company of its kind in Britain. She even started the Brunel International African Poetry Prize. In 2024, she created the RSL Scriptorium Awards. This award lets ten writers stay at her cottage on the Kent coast. They can stay there for a month to focus on writing. She also started the RSL Pioneer Prize for women over 60.

Her life has been full of many important achievements. She was born in 1959 in Eltham, London. Her father, Danny Evaristo, was a welder and a local councillor. Evaristo has received more than 90 different awards and honors. Her books have been named "Book of the Year" over 60 times. She was even named a Member of the Order of the British Empire. This is a special honor from the Queen. She continues to be a strong voice for all kinds of artists.

Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo is a celebrated English author and an influential academic. She currently serves as a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University of London. She is also a Visiting Professor of Creative Media at the University of Oxford for the 2025/26 period. Evaristo is widely recognized for her ability to blend different literary styles. She often merges fiction with poetry and reality with alternate realities. Her work explores the complex history of the African diaspora. This means she writes about the experiences of people with African roots living globally.

Evaristo uses many unique methods to tell her stories. In her novel *Girl, Woman, Other*, she utilizes a technique called fusion fiction. This style is polyvocal, meaning it uses many different voices. The novel follows twelve primarily Black British women. These characters range in age from 19 to 93 years old. They represent many different cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations, and social classes. This innovative approach helped her novel win the Booker Prize in 2019. She shared this honor with Margaret Atwood, who wrote *The Testaments*. This victory made Evaristo the first Black woman to win the Booker Prize.

Her literary career includes many experimental and historical works. In her verse novel *The Emperor's Babe*, she writes about a Black teenage girl in Roman London. This story takes place nearly 2,000 years ago. Her novel *Blonde Roots* is a work of satire. It inverts history by imagining a universe where Africans enslave Europeans. She also wrote *Soul Tourists*, an experimental novel about a couple traveling through Europe and the Middle East. In this book, she includes ghosts of real people of color from European history. These diverse projects show her deep interest in how history and identity intersect.

Evaristo has held many significant leadership roles in the literary community. She served as the President of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) for four years. She was the first Black or Asian person to hold this role since the organization began in 1820. She was also only the second woman to serve as President. After her term ended in 2025, she was elected President Emerita. In 2021, she also served as the President of Rose Bruford College. She completed her tenure there in 2024, passing the role to actor Ray Fearon.

Beyond her own writing, Evaristo is a dedicated advocate for other artists. She co-founded the writer development agency Spread the Word in 1995. In the 1980s, she helped found the Theatre of Black Women. This was Britain's first theatre company of its kind. She also organized major events like the *Future Histories* black theatre conference in 1995. In 1997, she held the *Tracing Paper* conference for Black British writing at the Museum of London. She also founded the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, which later became the Evaristo African Poetry Prize in 2023.

Evaristo uses her success to create new opportunities for struggling writers. In 2024, she established the RSL Scriptorium Awards. Through this program, ten UK writers per year can stay at her cottage on the Kent coast. They can stay for up to one month to focus on their work. She also created the RSL Pioneer Prize in 2025. This prize is for women writers aged over 60. She funded this prize with a £100,000 donation from her Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award. The first recipient of this prize was Maureen Duffy.

Her personal history and achievements are vast and deeply connected to her work. She was born in 1959 in Eltham, London, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. Her father, Danny Evaristo, was a welder and the first Black councillor in the Borough of Greenwich. Evaristo has received more than 90 different honors and awards. Her books have been named "Book of the Year" over 60 times. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2009. Later, in 2020, she became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE). These honors recognize her many services to literature.