Bernardine Evaristo

Bernardine Evaristo (MBE) has been hailed as one of Britain's most exciting and original authors, described by The Times as ‘Adventurous, compelling and utterly original'.

Her books include a verse-novel The Emperor's Babe (2001) and a novel-with-verse Soul Tourists (2005). Her first prose novel Blonde Roots (2008) is about the transatlantic slave trade but with a difference: Africans are the masters and Europeans are their slaves. Her publisher for these books is Hamish Hamilton/Penguin.

In 2009 Bloodaxe Books published a new version of her verse novel Lara, with new material. In 2007 she co-edited the Granta/British Council New Writing Anthology NW15 with the novelist Maggie Gee.

She has written drama for theatre and BBC Radios 4 and 3, collaborated on a multi-media performance with the musicians Joanna McGregor and Andy Shephard for the City of London Festival, and she frequently tours world-wide.

Her books have been chosen as a Book of the Year nine times by British newspapers and her awards include a NESTA Fellowship, Arts Council Writers Award and BT EMMA Best Book Award. In 2004 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and in 2006 of the Royal Society of Arts.