Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo was born on 28 May 1959 in Eltham, south-east London, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. Educated at Eltham Hill Grammar School for Girls, she graduated from Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in 1982. In the 1980s, she co-founded Britain's first black women's theatre company, Theatre of Black Women. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and served as President of the Royal Society of Literature from 2021 to 2025, the first black person and second woman in the role. Evaristo's literary career spans poetry, novels, verse fiction, and plays exploring the African diaspora. Her breakthrough novel Girl, Woman, Other (2019) jointly won the Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first black woman and first Black British author to win. Other notable works include the verse novels The Emperor's Babe (2001), Blonde Roots (2008), and Mr Loverman (2013). She has founded numerous initiatives supporting writers of colour, including the Brunel International African Poetry Prize.