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Bernadine Evaristo On What Her Booker Prize Win Tells Us About British Publishing

Bernadine Evaristo is a name well known by so many now, but she is an author who has been writing for over 40 years. Bernadine, or Bernie as she allows me to call her, is a true national heroine. She is a writer that knows no bounds and due to her fearless approach is now the 2019 winner of the prestigious Booker Prize for Fiction.

Bernie is proud of her heritage, her present wins and her future glories. She is not afraid to thank those who helped her. The youth theatre she attended in her teenage years to practice drama turned out to be the very place she would begin her writing journey. It was also the same place she would form Theatre of Black Women in 1992, with the aim of producing plays by and about Black British women at a time when parts for black women were almost non-existent in British theatre.

Bernie visualised this win; she knew for a long time it would come. That is inspirational self confidence that I really hope more young black men and women acquire. Winning the Booker Prize for her novel Girl, Woman, Other was not a surprise for Bernadine, but it was a moment of absolute excitement and one she will never forget.