{"id":2,"date":"2018-05-25T09:06:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T08:06:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/evaristo-symposium-2025\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2025-06-23T16:36:39","modified_gmt":"2025-06-23T15:36:39","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/evaristo-symposium-2025\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Bernardine Evaristo rose to prominence when her novel Girl, Woman, Other<\/i><\/em> won the Booker Prize in 2019, making her the first Black woman and Black British person to receive the award in its fifty-year history. Yet prior to this popular recognition she already had a long background of formally distinctive and politically engaged writing, and dynamic literary activism.<\/p>\n

Evaristo is the author of ten books and numerous other works across fiction, verse fiction, poetry, essay, radio and theatre. Her writing centres on the African diaspora, and takes innovative forms. Lara <\/i><\/em>(1997, 2009) is a semi-autobiographical novel-in-verse, tracing the flow of family through generations and across continents; verse novel The Emperor\u2019s Babe<\/i><\/em> (2001) centres on a Black teenager in Roman Londinium, two millennia ago; Blonde Roots<\/i><\/em> (2008) reimagines transatlantic history, as Africans enslave Europeans; Mr Loverman<\/i><\/em> (2013) explores sexuality whilst spotlighting Britain\u2019s older Caribbean community; Girl, Woman, Other<\/i><\/em> (2019) is a polyvocal gathering of Black womxn across contemporary Britain. Evaristo\u2019s books have been translated into more than 40 languages.<\/p>\n

Evaristo is a longstanding advocate for writers and artists of colour. In 2021 she was elected President of the Royal Society of Literature: the second woman and the first Black person and person of colour to hold the role since the Society was founded in 1820. She is also Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University of London. In 2025 Evaristo’s achievements were recognised with the Women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award<\/a>, a one-off prize to mark the 30th anniversary year of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. <\/span>Full details of Evaristo’s biography and books can be found on her website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This international symposium, the first on Evaristo, is organised by Dr Nicola Abram<\/a>, University of Reading, as part of the Routledge \u2018Contemporary Writers: Critical Essays<\/a>\u2019 series, edited by Sarah Dillon. It is generously supported by the Centre for Book Cultures and Publishing<\/a> and the Diversity and Inclusion<\/a> Initiative Fund at the University of Reading.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learn more about the author Bernardine Evaristo, and the 2025 Symposium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":219,"featured_media":322,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":""},"coauthors":[14],"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAbout - Bernardine Evaristo Symposium<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This international symposium is the first on contemporary writer Bernardine Evaristo, the first Black woman and Black British person to receive the Booker Prize in its fifty-year history. 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