One of the hottest literary talents in Britain was in Washington, DC in Feb. 2005 as part of our inaugural UK Writer-in-Residence program - an ongoing initiative at major American universities. Writers in the program spend a month in the States with American students, teaching, giving readings of their work and contributing to campus and academic life as well as to the cultural life of their host city.
Bernardine Evaristo took the nation's capital by storm this past spring. In addition to her teaching activities at Georgetown University, Bernardine also:
- discussed her work at the Library of Congress on Feb. 17 in an event that was free and open to the public
- gave a special Valentine's Day reading at Georgetown University
- taught a special workshop at George Washington University and other local organizations.
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“Bernardine’s visit was a new and interesting look into the changing face of poetry.” “It’s exciting to try new ways of creative thought and share in the process of a successful creative writer.” “What is British about Bernardine’s work?...The economy of her text, the cultural richness.” “I became more aware of the literary diversity in the UK.” “She showed me that UK writers are more diverse than Americans think they are.” “Bernardine gave the impression that contemporary UK writers are of the highest caliber…her nationality makes richer the voices of her characters.” "I didn’t expect them [contemporary British writers] to be so experimental. I expected Chaucer.” |
Bernardine Evaristo was born in London to an English mother and Nigerian father. The fourth of eight siblings, she was raised in Woolwich, South London, and originally trained as an actress and worked in theater. She is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels-in-verse: Lara (1997), which traces the roots of a mixed-race English-Nigerian-Brazilian-Irish family over 150 years, three continents and seven generations; and The Emperor's Babe (2001), the ground-breaking tragi-comic story of Zuleika, a girl of Sudanese parents, who grows up in Roman London and has an affair with Roman Emperor Septimius Severus. Her latest novel-in-verse, Soul Tourists (2005), is about a car journey across Europe starring a mismatched couple, Stanley and Jessie, with cameo appearances en route from ghosts of color from European history such as Pushkin, Alessandro de Medici and Mary Seacole.
Evaristo's work has often invited comparison with the new generation of British-born, black British writers like Andrea Levy, Jackie Kay and Patience Agbabi. Evaristo's writing is energized by her own plural, diasporic heritage which marks her as both a British and a post-colonial writer. Her narratives produce post-national landscapes in which Britain appears as the crossroads for a series of global movements and migrations.
If Evaristo's writing is notable for the extent to which it transgresses the boundaries of the nation, then it is just as remarkable for the extent to which it challenges the traditional boundaries of literary genre. This is a writer who is pushing not just the boundaries of contemporary British writing, but of what it means to be British.
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