Latest news with #Evaristo
Los Angeles Times
2 days ago
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Fine dining concept Adia returns in Newport Beach
During the pandemic when most restaurants were closed, local chefs Karlo Evaristo and Jared Ventura were busy creating their own dining concept, Adia. A roaming, pop-up restaurant, Adia blends Evaristo's Filipino heritage and cooking experience with Ventura's Italian background and cooking skills to create a multi-course, fine dining menu. 'Adia began as a fun passion project for us. We wanted to do a long-format tasting menu because we really enjoy those special meals,' said Ventura. 'Our first dinner featured 22 courses,' said Evaristo. 'We started with pop-ups and moved into private dining during the pandemic, as well as restaurant consulting.' In the past, Adia has popped up in Orange County restaurants like Trust in Downtown Santa Ana and commissaries like the Hood Kitchen Space in Costa Mesa. On Aug. 8 and 9, the two chefs partnered with chef Benjamin Martinek, culinary director of Pendry Newport Beach, on a special seven-course dinner, hosted at Viamara inside the hotel's members only Elwood Club. The Pendry keeps Martinek busy, overseeing all dining concepts there, including SET Steak & Sushi, the Pavilion, Tree Shack Pool Bar & Grill, Bar Pendry and other dining concepts within the Elwood Club, like the Pub and the Cabaret. While partnering with Adia put another item on his plate, Martinek was excited to offer the experience to patrons and guests, while Evaristo and Ventura were happy to present Adia for the first time since 2023. 'It was an extra special evening for us because it was the first pop-up we've done in a very long time,' said Ventura. 'It was an evening of reuniting with some really great old friends.' Adia's long hiatus is the result of Evaristo and Ventura's busy schedules. Since Adia began, both have been absorbed in additional culinary adventures. Ventura started Vivi's Pasta, a small batch fresh pasta company that uses Italian 00 flour, no seed oils and offers gluten free options. Made by hand in Costa Mesa, Vivi's Pasta is available at the Aliso Viejo Town Center Market on Saturdays and Stonegate Irvine Market on Sundays. Evaristo opened 6100 Bread at 728 N. Poinsettia St., in Santa Ana, a sourdough bread bakery with viral blue corn sourdough loaves and an ube cruffin. The bakery draws long lines each week while also producing bread for some of Orange County's best restaurants, including Viamara. The special two-night dinner featured a mix of French and Italian cuisine that highlighted each chef's signature skills while taking inspiration from the seasons. 'We start by doing what we did in the restaurants before, and that was look at what's best available in season and ingredients that make us very excited. Then we write a menu and it definitely has influences from the both of us,' said Evaristo. 'We first started cooking together over 10 years ago, so we definitely think alike.' A croissant course, for instance, presented a bite-sized cube of crunchy, buttery, laminated dough topped with rich duck liver and blackberry preserve. Another course included a perfectly seared scallop with a delicately stuffed choux farci, or cabbage roll, in beurre rouge. The pasta course was made up of fresh polenta tortellini with truffle miso and a dusting of parmigiano. While there isn't another Adia dinner on the event calendar at the Pendry yet, last week's dinner has galvanized the pop-up's return. 'We are both very busy, but also very excited about doing new Adia pop-ups,' said Ventura. 'I'm sure we will have one or two before the year ends.' Keep up with Adia's future events at or follow them on Instagram @restaurant_adia.
Gulf Today
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Gulf Today
Evaristo wins accolades for breaking literary boundaries
Bernardine Evaristo doesn't like boundaries. For the Booker Prize-winning novelist, rules about genre, grammar or what a working-class biracial woman can achieve are all to be challenged and swept away. Evaristo was announced on Wednesday as recipient of the 100,000-pound ($135,000) Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for her 'transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices.' Evaristo, 66, received the prize both for her work to help promote women and writers of colour, and for writing that takes in poetry, a memoir and seven novels including the Booker-winning 'Girl, Woman, Other.' 'I just go wherever my imagination takes me,' she said. 'I didn't want to write the kind of novels that would take you on a predictable emotional or moral journey.' Evaristo had already explored autobiographical fiction, historical settings and alternate realities when she won the Booker in 2019 for 'Girl Woman, Other,' a polyphonic novel told from the point of view of a dozen characters, largely Black women, with widely varying ages, experiences and sexualities. She was the first woman of African heritage to be awarded the prize, which was founded in 1969 and has a reputation for transforming writers' careers. When she won, Evaristo was 60 and had been a writer for decades. She says the recognition 'came at the right time for me.' 'Maybe I wouldn't have handled it so well if I was younger,' she told The Associated Press at her London home. 'It changed my career — in terms of book sales, foreign rights, translation, the way in which I was viewed as a writer. Various other opportunities came my way. And I felt that I had the foundations to handle that.' Evaristo's house on a quiet suburban street is bright and comfortable, with wooden floors, vibrant textiles and a large wooden writing desk by the front window. Large photos of her Nigerian paternal grandparents hang on one wall. Her work often draws on her roots as the London-born child of a Nigerian father and white British mother. Like much of Evaristo's work, 'Girl, Woman, Other' eludes classification. She calls it 'fusion fiction' for its melding of poetry and prose into a novel that relishes the texture and rhythm of language. 'I kind of dispense with the rules of grammar,' she said. 'I think I have 12 full stops in the novel.' If that sounds dauntingly experimental, readers didn't think so. 'Girl, Woman, Other' has sold more than 1 million copies and was chosen as one of Barack Obama's books of the year. Evaristo traces her love of poetry to the church services of her Catholic childhood, where she soaked up the rhythms of the Bible and sermons, 'without realizing I was absorbing poetry.' When she started writing novels, the love of poetry remained, along with a desire to tell stories of the African diaspora. One of her first major successes, 'The Emperor's Babe,' is a verse novel set in Roman Britain. 'Most people think the Black history of Britain only began in the 20th century,' Evaristo said. 'I wanted to write about a Black presence in Roman Britain — because there was a Black presence in Roman Britain 1,800 years ago.' Another novel, 'Blonde Roots,' is set in an alternative historical timeline in which Africans have enslaved Europeans, and was nominated for a major science-fiction award. 'Mr Loverman,' was an attempt to move beyond cliched images of Britain's postwar Caribbean immigrants. It was recently made into a BBC television series starring Lennie James and Sharon D. Clarke. Her latest award is a one-off accolade marking the 30th anniversary of the annual Women's Prizes for English-language fiction and nonfiction. Women's Prize founder Kate Mosse said Evaristo's 'dazzling skill and imagination, and her courage to take risks and offer readers a pathway into diverse and multifarious worlds over a 40-year career made her the ideal recipient.' Evaristo, who teaches creative writing at Brunel University of London, plans to use the prize money to help other women writers through an as-yet undisclosed project. She has long been involved with projects to level the playing field for under-represented writers, and is especially proud of Complete Works, a mentoring program for poets of color that she ran for a decade. Associated Press
New Indian Express
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
British writer Bernardine Evaristo receives accolade for breaking literary boundaries
LONDON: Bernardine Evaristo doesn't like boundaries. For the Booker Prize -winning novelist, rules about genre, grammar or what a working-class biracial woman can achieve are all to be challenged and swept away. Evaristo was announced Wednesday as recipient of the 100,000-pound ($135,000) Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for her 'transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices.' Evaristo, 66, received the prize both for her work to help promote women and writers of color, and for writing that takes in poetry, a memoir and seven novels including the Booker-winning 'Girl, Woman, Other.' 'I just go wherever my imagination takes me,' she said. 'I didn't want to write the kind of novels that would take you on a predictable emotional or moral journey.' An eclectic output Evaristo had already explored autobiographical fiction, historical settings and alternate realities when she won the Booker in 2019 for 'Girl Woman, Other,' a polyphonic novel told from the point of view of a dozen characters, largely Black women, with widely varying ages, experiences and sexualities. She was the first woman of African heritage to be awarded the prize, which was founded in 1969 and has a reputation for transforming writers' careers. When she won, Evaristo was 60 and had been a writer for decades. She says the recognition 'came at the right time for me.'
Wales Online
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Bernardine Evaristo receives Women's Prize outstanding contribution award
Bernardine Evaristo receives Women's Prize outstanding contribution award The one-off literary honour celebrates Evaristo's body of work and dedication to advancing the voices of people from underrepresented backgrounds (Image: Getty Images ) Award-winning novelist Bernardine Evaristo has been announced as the recipient of an outstanding contribution award from the Women's Prize Trust. The one-off literary honour celebrates Evaristo's body of work and dedication to advancing the voices of people from underrepresented backgrounds. The trust is known for the Women's Prize for Fiction, a popular literary award that was established in 1996. Evaristo, 66, who was joint winner of the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel Girl, Woman, Other, will be presented with the award and £100,000 prize money on June 12 at the Women's Prize Trust's summer party in London. She said: "I am completely overwhelmed and overjoyed to receive this unique award. "I feel such deep gratitude towards the Women's Prize for honouring me in this way. Article continues below "Over the last three decades I have witnessed with great admiration and respect how the Women's Prize for Fiction has so bravely and brilliantly championed and developed women's writing, always from an inclusive stance. "The financial reward comes as an unexpected blessing in my life and, given the mission of the Women's Prize Trust, it seems fitting that I spend this substantial sum supporting other women writers; more details on this will be forthcoming." Evaristo will be honoured alongside the winners of the 2025 Women's Prize for Fiction and the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction, which was won by V V Ganeshananthan and Naomi Klein respectively, last year. Authors who have been longlisted or won the Women's Prize for Fiction over the past three decades, and had published a minimum of five books, were eligible for the outstanding contribution award. The winner of the outstanding contribution award was selected by a judging panel chaired by novelist and non-fiction author Kate Mosse, founder director of the Women's Prize for Fiction and Women's Prize for Non-Fiction. She said: "My fellow judges and I always knew it would be a tall order to choose just one author from the many exceptional contemporary writers who have made such a huge contribution in a world where women's voices are increasingly being silenced, where the arts and artists are under attack. "Books encourage empathy, they offer alternative and diverse points of view; they help us to stand in other people's shoes and to see our own worlds in the mirror. "In the end, we felt that Bernardine Evaristo's beautiful, ambitious and inventive body of work (which includes plays, poetry, essays, monologues and memoir as well as award-winning fiction), her dazzling skill and imagination, and her courage to take risks and offer readers a pathway into diverse and multifarious worlds over a forty-year career, made her the ideal recipient of the Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award." The Women's Prize Trust says the one-off award marks the 30th anniversary year of the Women's Prize for Fiction. Evaristo, who was born in Woolwich, south London, and is of Anglo-Nigerian descent, has shed light on the lives of modern British women through her work, taking an interest in the African diaspora. She has launched several successful writing schemes to support women writers and under-represented writers of colour, including the Complete Works mentoring scheme for poets. Several of her works, including The Emperor's Babe and Hello Mum, have been adapted into BBC Radio 4 plays. Article continues below Evaristo's other novels include Blonde Roots, Soul Tourists and Mr Loverman. The latter was turned into an eight-part BBC drama starring Lennie James and Ariyon Bakare. The actors, who star as lovers struggling to go public with their relationship, picked up Baftas for their roles during the academy's TV awards in May.
Hindustan Times
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
British writer Bernardine Evaristo receives accolade for breaking literary boundaries
LONDON — Bernardine Evaristo doesn't like boundaries. For the Booker Prize -winning novelist, rules about genre, grammar or what a working-class biracial woman can achieve are all to be challenged and swept away. Evaristo was announced Wednesday as recipient of the 100,000-pound Women's Prize Outstanding Contribution Award for her 'transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices." Evaristo, 66, received the prize both for her work to help promote women and writers of color, and for writing that takes in poetry, a memoir and seven novels including the Booker-winning 'Girl, Woman, Other.' 'I just go wherever my imagination takes me,' she said. 'I didn't want to write the kind of novels that would take you on a predictable emotional or moral journey.' Evaristo had already explored autobiographical fiction, historical settings and alternate realities when she won the Booker in 2019 for 'Girl Woman, Other,' a polyphonic novel told from the point of view of a dozen characters, largely Black women, with widely varying ages, experiences and sexualities. She was the first woman of African heritage to be awarded the prize, which was founded in 1969 and has a reputation for transforming writers' careers. When she won, Evaristo was 60 and had been a writer for decades. She says the recognition 'came at the right time for me.' 'Maybe I wouldn't have handled it so well if I was younger,' she told The Associated Press at her London home. 'It changed my career –- in terms of book sales, foreign rights, translation, the way in which I was viewed as a writer. Various other opportunities came my way. And I felt that I had the foundations to handle that.' Evaristo's house on a quiet suburban street is bright and comfortable, with wooden floors, vibrant textiles and a large wooden writing desk by the front window. Large photos of her Nigerian paternal grandparents hang on one wall. Her work often draws on her roots as the London-born child of a Nigerian father and white British mother. Like much of Evaristo's work, 'Girl, Woman, Other' eludes classification. She calls it 'fusion fiction' for its melding of poetry and prose into a novel that relishes the texture and rhythm of language. 'I kind of dispense with the rules of grammar,' she said. 'I think I have 12 full stops in the novel.' If that sounds dauntingly experimental, readers didn't think so. 'Girl, Woman, Other' has sold more than 1 million copies and was chosen as one of Barack Obama's books of the year. Evaristo traces her love of poetry to the church services of her Catholic childhood, where she soaked up the rhythms of the Bible and sermons, 'without realizing I was absorbing poetry.' When she started writing novels, the love of poetry remained, along with a desire to tell stories of the African diaspora. One of her first major successes, 'The Emperor's Babe,' is a verse novel set in Roman Britain. 'Most people think the Black history of Britain only began in the 20th century,' Evaristo said. 'I wanted to write about a Black presence in Roman Britain -– because there was a Black presence in Roman Britain 1,800 years ago.' Another novel, 'Blonde Roots,' is set in an alternative historical timeline in which Africans have enslaved Europeans, and was nominated for a major science-fiction award. 'Mr Loverman,' which centers on a closeted gay 70-something Antiguan Londoner, was an attempt to move beyond cliched images of Britain's postwar Caribbean immigrants. It was recently made into a BBC television series starring Lennie James and Sharon D. Clarke. Her latest award is a one-off accolade marking the 30th anniversary of the annual Women's Prizes for English-language fiction and nonfiction. Women's Prize founder Kate Mosse said Evaristo's 'dazzling skill and imagination, and her courage to take risks and offer readers a pathway into diverse and multifarious worlds over a 40-year career made her the ideal recipient.' Evaristo, who teaches creative writing at Brunel University of London, plans to use the prize money to help other women writers through an as-yet undisclosed project. She has long been involved with projects to level the playing field for under-represented writers, and is especially proud of Complete Works, a mentoring program for poets of color that she ran for a decade. 'I set that up because I initiated research into how many poets of color were getting published in Britain at that time, and it was under 1%' of the total, she said. A decade later, it was 10%. "It really has helped shift the poetry landscape in the U.K.," she said. Evaristo followed 'Girl, Woman, Other' with 'Manifesto,' a memoir that recounts the stark racism of her 1960s London childhood, as well as her lifelong battle for creative expression and freedom. If Evaristo grew up as an outsider, these days she is ensconced in the arts establishment: professor, Booker winner, Officer of the Order of the British Empire, or OBE, and president of the 200-year-old Royal Society of Literature. That milestone -– she's the first person of color and the second woman to head the RSL -– has not been trouble-free. The society has been ruffled by free speech tows and arguments over attempts to bring in younger writers and diversify its ranks -– moves seen by some as watering down the accolade of membership. Evaristo doesn't want to talk about the controversy, but notes that as figurehead president she does not run the society. She says Britain has come a long way since her childhood but 'we have to be vigilant.' 'The country I grew up in is not the country I'm in today,' she said. 'We've made a lot of progress, and I feel that we need to work hard to maintain it, especially in the current political climate where it feels as if the forces are against progress, and proudly so. 'Working towards an anti-racist society is something that we should value, and I hope we do, and that we don't backslide too much.'
