Bernadine Evaristo OBE

Bernardine published ten books of fiction, verse and non-fiction, winning the Booker Prize in 2019 for her novel Girl, Woman, Other - the first black woman and black British person to win it.

Evaristo was born in Woolwich to an English mother and a Nigerian father. She was educated at Eltham Hill Girls’ Grammar School, the Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama (where she is currently President) and Goldsmiths, University of London, where she earned her PhD in Creative Writing. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the first black woman to assume the role in its 200-year history.

She was awarded an MBE in in 2009 and an OBE in 2020, both for services to literature.