Her paternal grandmother, Zenobia Evaristo, née Sowemima (d. Her paternal grandfather, Gregorio Bankole Evaristo, was a Yoruba Aguda who sailed from Brazil to Nigeria. Brinkworth, of English, Irish and German heritage, who was a schoolteacher, and a Nigerian father, Julius Taiwo Bayomi Evaristo (1927–2001), known as Danny, born in British Cameroon, raised in Nigeria, who migrated to Britain in 1949 and became a welder and the first black councillor in the Borough of Greenwich, for the Labour Party. She was raised in Woolwich, the fourth of eight children born to an English mother, Jacqueline M. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the Queen's 2009 Birthday Honours, and an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the Queen's 2020 Birthday Honours, both for services to literature.Įvaristo was born in Eltham, south-east London, and christened Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo. Evaristo was Vice-Chair of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) and in 2020 she became a lifetime vice president, before becoming president (2022–2026).

In 2021, she succeeded Sir Richard Eyre as President of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance. She is a lifetime Honorary Fellow of St Anne's College, University of Oxford and International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She organised Britain's first major black theatre conference, Future Histories, for the Black Theatre Forum, (1995) at the Royal Festival Hall, and Britain's first major conference on black British writing, Tracing Paper (1997) at the Museum of London.Įvaristo has received more than 77 honours, awards, fellowships, nominations and other tokens of recognition. She co-founded Spread the Word writer development agency with Ruth Borthwick (1995–present) and Britain's first black women's theatre company (1982–1988), Theatre of Black Women. She founded the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, 2012–2022, and initiated The Complete Works poetry mentoring scheme, 2007–2017. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first person with Black heritage to hold the role since it was founded in 1820.Įvaristo is a longstanding advocate for the inclusion of writers and artists of colour. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other, jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, making her the first woman with Black heritage to win the Booker. Novelist, critic, poet, playwright, academicīritish Book Awards: Fiction and Author of the Year 2020īernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo, OBE FRSL FRSA (born ) is a British author and academic. Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama Goldsmiths College, University of London

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