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The Independent
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bernardine Evaristo receives Women's Prize outstanding contribution award
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. '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. 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.
BBC News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bernardine Evaristo 'astonished' to receive one-off Women's Prize for outstanding contribution
Trailblazing author Bernardine Evaristo has said she is "astonished" to have been honoured with a one-off outstanding contribution award to mark the 30th anniversary of the Women's Prize for who was the first black woman to win the prestigious Booker Prize when the award was shared with Margaret Atwood in 2019, told the BBC: "This [prize] wasn't on anyone's radar... I feel very blessed."The accolade is in honour of her career's work - which includes her Booker-winning novel Girl, Woman, Other - and her long-running advocacy for inclusion and diversity in the will receive £100,000 prize money and a sculpture. Both will be presented on 12 June at a ceremony in London, where the winners of the 2025 Women's Prizes for Fiction and Non-Fiction will also be said she would put the prize money into a project to support other women writers, and will give more details in the autumn."I'm not doing it because I'm a multi-millionaire," she joked. "It just feels right to put back in. We should support each other."The writer said it was "incredibly validating" that her advocacy work had been recognised by the Women's Prize body."Women's fiction was in a very bad place when it [the Prize charity] began. Every year it's shone a light... and helped to amplify women's voices." Evaristo co-founded Britain's first black women's theatre company, Theatre of Black Women, which ran from 1982 to also set up the Spread the Word writers' development agency, the Complete Works mentoring scheme for poets of colour, and the Brunel International African Poetry Prize, among other projects. She was made an MBE in 2009 for services to 66-year-old said she began her activism work in the 1980s "simply because there was a need for it"."At that time, it's not something I saw as separate to my creativity. I did it because I knew I wanted to take responsibility, to be the change I wanted to see. I did it because it needed to be done."It's important not to rest on your laurels because "if we don't keep up momentum, the status quo might close in on itself again", she said."It's not something where we can say 'We've achieved this, we can drop it'."She said there was a current "backlash against freedoms women had earned over a century"."There is always the risk of a backlash." She wouldn't be drawn on her next writing project because "it's not wise to announce things prematurely", but she said she still has time to juggle both her writing and her activism work."I've been here a long time... I've had a long time to get things done! My main focus is my writing. I'm a writer who has to juggle lots of things... to create tensions. That's how I work."I'm good at compartmentalising. But I do work all the time. My husband and I have been together 18 years and we went on our first holiday three years ago!"But she said that's because "I enjoy what I do"."I work weekends, there's no distinction between weekdays and the weekend. I don't need to drag myself away from what I do. It's positive energy." The Women's Prize Trust says it aims to celebrate and amplify women's voices; open up writing as a viable career for women from all backgrounds; and promote original judging panel for the contribution award included critic and writer Bonnie Greer, broadcaster Vick Hope, and author Kate said in statement: "Bernardine Evaristo's beautiful, ambitious and inventive body of work, her 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."Significantly, Evaristo has consistently used her own magnificent achievements and exceptional talent as a springboard to create opportunities for others, to promote unheard and under-heard women's voices and to ensure that every female writer feels she has a conduit for her talent." Trailblazing talent Evaristo was born the fourth of eight children in Woolwich, south east London, to an English mother and a Nigerian father. Her father was a welder and local Labour councillor; her mother was a spent her teenage years at Greenwich Young People's Theatre and went on to study at Goldsmiths, University of London, where she earned her PhD in creative is currently president of the Royal Society of Literature (RSL) and a professor of creative writing at Brunel University, other creative works include her 2013 novel Mr Loverman, about an elderly man whose marriage falls apart after his long-term affair with his male was adapted for a BBC drama series starring Lennie James, and recently picked up two major acting prizes at the Bafta TV other books include satirical novel Blonde Roots and a memoir, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up.
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Bernardine Evaristo scoops Women's prize outstanding contribution award
Bernardine Evaristo is to receive £100,000 after being announced as the winner of the Women's prize outstanding contribution award, a one-off prize to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Women's prize for fiction. The author of Girl, Woman, Other and Mr Loverman has been rewarded for her entire body of work, as well as her 'transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices across the cultural landscape'. The Booker-winning writer co-founded Britain's first black women's theatre company more than 40 years ago, and has published acclaimed writing across multiple genres. In 2022 she was elected president of the Royal Society of Literature, becoming the first writer of colour and only the second woman to hold the position. Throughout her career, Evaristo has launched several successful writing schemes designed to support female writers and under-represented writers of colour, most recently launching the RSL Scriptorium awards, which give 10 writers a year the opportunity to use her Kent cottage for a writing retreat. 'I am completely overwhelmed and overjoyed to receive this unique award,' Evaristo said. '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.' She said the prize money was 'an unexpected blessing in my life' and 'it seems fitting that I spend this substantial sum supporting other women writers'. Details on how she will do that will follow, she said. Funded by Bukhman Philanthropies, the prize is designed to reflect the founding principles of the Women's prize for fiction, 'to celebrate and amplify women's voices; to open the pathways into writing as a viable career choice for women from all backgrounds; and to shine a spotlight on exceptional, original books for readers to discover and enjoy.' As well as the prize money, Evaristo will receive a sculpture named Thoughtful by the artist Caroline Russell, to be awarded on 12 June when the winners of the Women's prizes for fiction and nonfiction will also be revealed. The judging panel was chaired by the author and Women's prize founder Kate Mosse, who was joined by a selection of former Women's prize for fiction judges: the academic and writer Gillian Beer; the writer and activist Scarlett Curtis; the playwright and author Bonnie Greer; and the broadcaster Vick Hope. To be eligible for the prize, authors had to have published at least five books and been previously longlisted for the Women's prize for fiction. Sign up to Bookmarks Discover new books and learn more about your favourite authors with our expert reviews, interviews and news stories. Literary delights delivered direct to you after newsletter promotion Mosse said Evaristo's 'beautiful, ambitious and inventive body of work' as well as her 'dazzling skill and imagination' made her 'the ideal recipient' of the one-off award. 'Significantly, Evaristo has consistently used her own magnificent achievements and exceptional talent as a springboard to create opportunities for others, to promote unheard and under-heard women's voices and to ensure that every female writer feels she has a conduit for her talent,' she said.
