Just published, my piece on the Royal Society of Literature, which has been under attack by a group of fellows who rolled out their grievances in the media last week. It's been terrible. Please do show support for
@RSLiterature
Surely this is hate speech. It's so deeply misogynistic and as
@JohnBishop100
says, 'a blatant appeal to incite humiliation and violence on a woman'. Complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation - Inquiries
@ipso
.co.uk.
I end this piece with a list of 60 black British women novelists writing across genres, many of them debuts & the majority are not well-known. Look them up and see if they're for you, your reading group, your friends, different gens of your family.
#Vogue
The final episode of
#HappyValley
tonite was a mistressclass in character complexity, development & transformation, nailbiting drama, & hope in humanity. Major props to writer Sally Wainright, Sarah Lancashire (obvs) & terrific cast & production values.
Following on from yesterday's post, I'm very sorry to hear this sad news. Thanks to all who retweeted. And sending my condolences to
his family & friends.
Exactly! The 'anti-woke warriors' struggle to define it because it's a catch-all for anything they oppose, and a red herring used by some of the media to distract from serious issues. Sadly, people fall for it and it is preparing the ground for regression and more discrimination.
Such an exceptional, powerful, female figure in a patriarchal political culture. And a huge advocate of literature. She interviewed me for the
@edbookfest
in 2020, which was such a treat, but we never met in person. Look forward to your next stage
@NicolaSturgeon
#nicolasturgeon
Such terribly sad news. RIP Benjamin Zephaniah, trailblaizing poet, force of nature and colleague
@Bruneluni
, which we both joined in 2011. I first saw him perform at the Albany Empire, as it was then called, in 1982.
Congrats to all the writers listed, but honestly, the
@GrantaBooks
20 is the whitest it's ever been when British literature is browner than it's ever been - after all the battles, the campaigns - since the 1980s. Only two black writers, no Asian writers, yet so many more
Afua Hirsch has a new book out, DECOLONISING MY BODY
@PenguinUKBooks
Oct 19. It's exceptionally rich, enjoyable, inspiring, sage, challenging & moving.
@afuahirsch
really is the best of us! I'll be interviewing her on Oct 15.
Can
@BBCNews
please get involved with spreading the word about this missing writer - well loved in the literary community, who are sharing posts across social media. The police are searching.
Can anybody help me with getting press involved please? I'll write anything. We need him home. We need our friend home.
Gboyega Odubanjo. Missing since Friday night/Saturday am. Last seen 4am on Saturday 26th August.
We were only just dancing together at my dj set.
THE WOMAN KING & WAKANDA FOREVER feature formidable black women who are physically & mentally powerful, intelligent & cunning, self-controlled & emotional. They're outstanding, groundbreaking films with fantastic acting that deserve all the prizes.
#WakandaForever
#TheWomanKing
Dear authors, publicists & publishers. When writers generously provide quotes based on proofs, make sure we are a priority to receive the published book itself. We shouldn't have to ask for a copy, that often even then doesn't arrive. A little consideration goes a long way.
Who knew that the newspapers make things up? I'm not achingly hip, I've never even heard of the club mentioned and I've therefore not been spotted at the bar chatting to Melvyn Bragg.
HAPPY VALLEY - the best of the best. Next time I'm watching the entire series on iPlayer because waiting a week for each episode is too much. Dialogue, direction and what a cast, esp
#SarahLancashire
's Catherine - 'Formidable 50s'.
#HappyValley
@spiceyw
So sad to hear
#DillibeOnyeama
has died. We republished his excoriating 1971 memoir A Black Boy at Eton last Feb as part of Black Britain: Writing Back (Penguin). Glad that in the last year of his life, the book received such positive attention, when 50 yrs ago he was scorned.
Lovely to take part in this New York Times
@nytimes
feature with
@LynetteLinton
who became AD of the
@bushtheatre
in 2019 at 28 and is making waves bringing overlooked voices to the fore while garnering numerous accolades inc. an Olivier Award.
I first saw the inimitable Sophie Okonedo in 1991 in Young Soul Rebels, directed by
@isaacjulien
. Yesterday, her emotionally feverish Medea
@sohoplacelondon
shows why she is one of our greatest actors. With Ben Daniels also fantastic as her foe and foil. Stunning production.
Oh, so we're back in the 1970s, as if we never left it. This is about a diseased institutional culture disproportionately populated with bigoted & corruptible characters. Read CORRUPTIBLE: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us by
@brianklaas
.
#CaseyReport
Coming up! Just before this autumn's BBC TV drama adaptation of my 2013 novel Mr Loverman (
@PenguinUKBooks
). Looking forward to being interviewed by the novelist Okechuckwu Nzelu. Book Club with Bernardine Evaristo: Mr Loverman
That said, we have a bumper year ahead for black British women's fiction. The range of the novels I've read so far is just what has been missing - Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks, A House for Alice by Diana Evans, Rosewater by Liv Little, Nigerwife by
Vanessa Walters...
I love listening to (most :) writers talk. I learn from their literature, but also from their experiences, ideas and process in conversation.
@NobelPrize
Abdulrazak Gurnah spoke beautifully yesterday interviewed by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
@hayfestival_esp
Cartagena.
@BloomsburyBooks
End of module, end of term, with my smashing MA Creative Writing students at Brunel University London
@Bruneluni
@BrunelWriter
this week - with my co-tutor, theatre director and acting coach, Angela Ekaette Michaels.
On the road. Arriving at the massive and majestic Frankfurt Literaturhaus for another lovely event for Mr Loverman just published into German by
@TropenVerlag
,
translated by Tanja Handels. 10 years exactly after it was published in the UK.
1/ Big shout out to readers & the industry to please not overlook FIRE RUSH by Jacqueline Crooks
@Luidas
(Feb 28) My cover quote, from a Guardian article I wrote last year about older black women, was written before I'd read the book. My quote about the book itself, is this:
Excited that HOME IS NOT A PLACE by
@johnypitts
(photos) & Roger Robinson
@rrobinson72
(poems) is shortlisted for the British Book Awards
@thebookseller
. It's an exquisite & utterly original exploration of Britain's black communities. It deserves more attention & a wider
Now open for submissions for a second year. The Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2012-2022) taken on by the
@AfricanPoetryBF
who renamed and reconfigured it. Thanks
@brittlepaper
for posting.
Just putting it out there - no more requests for book blurbs, pls. It never stops & I've given at least a 100 & 7 just recently. No means no with no exceptions. Someone asked me SIX times for the same book...If I like a book, I'll Tweet about it - freely - no requests.
In awe of Sarah Lancashire's acting chops in
#HappyValley
. WHAT a phenomenal performance - again, season 3. The strength, vulnerability, physicality, believability. Sally Wainright does it again
@spiceyw
& the entire cast is great. Can't wait for Sundays!
My handwritten book, 4.5cm high, 'The African Origins of the United Kingdom', is now, alongside 20 others, in the library of the Queen Mary miniature doll's house, the world's largest, in Windsor Castle, 100 years after it was built.
NICOLA WILLIAMS with the first advance copies of her new novel — the follow-up to her debut, ‘Without Prejudice’ (reissued in our Black Britain: Writing Back series), published 25 years ago.
Out from Hamish Hamilton in March!
🏆We’re beyond thrilled to introduce the stellar panel of judges for the Global Black Women’s Non-Fiction Manuscript Prize led by judging chair,
@BernardineEvari
!
🔗Learn more about our esteemed judges
Looking forward to talking to the poet
@YomiSode
. My last UK stage event out of two this year about my work, and for the forseeable future. Discussing The Emperor's Babe & Soul Tourists
@PenguinBooks
Michelle Yeoh, who has always been a terrific actress, is only the 2nd woman of colour to win
#Oscars
Best Actress in 95 years & the first in 22yrs.The voters are still majority white & male. Illuminating overview on prizes here.
#Oscars2023
#MichelleYeoh
If you keep saying the same thing, you hope that one day you won't ever have to say it again. Just when we're at our most interesting, we are made the most invisible in our ageist societies. With
@AuroraVergaraF1
, Vice Minister of Education, Colombia
@hayfestival_esp
Cartagena
And without further ado... We are THRILLED to reveal the 2023
#WomensPrize
longlist in all of its glory.
Huge congratulations to our sixteen brilliant longlisted authors! Discover them here:
I love
@brixtonlibrary
- great librarians and great audiences. I first appeared there in the 90s and will always include it on my book tours forever more.
Brixton Library Fiction Reading Group meets on 1st Tuesday of each month at 6:30pm -online & in person. Join us on 7 Feb in the library or via Teams to discuss
@BernardineEvari
's Girl Woman Other. Copies are available to collect now. Email aobrien
@lambeth
.gov.uk for more info.
I've known the academic Lyn Innes for years, with no idea that she is the great-grandaughter of the last Nawab Nazim of Bengal, Bihar & Orissa (3x the size of the UK). This book is an indictment of British colonial corruption & exploitation but also a fascinating family history.
Mz Evaristo of Suburbia after her soundcheck and 30 mins before delivering the 49th annual Baggs Memorial Happiness Lecture
@unibirmingham
in the magnificent Great Hall last night. Unusual and enjoyable commission. Happy and relieved to report that all of those seats filled up.
Sublime Sheku Kanneh-Mason playing yesterday in concert - standing ovation. (Still only 23...) with the London Philharmonia
@LPOrchestra
@southbankcentre
. Look forward to seeing the other siblings perform live. Read House of Music. (Pic: Sheku & parents)
@thekannehmasons
@ShekuKM
Hasta luego, Colombia. Feat singer activist Yadia Chamaria de Los Manglares with La Boquilla's young musicians & Nohora Arrieta Fernandez, academic. Afro Colombia: not the side-story but at the heart of the story. Thanx
@AuroraVergaraF1
& Sindis Meza &
@hayfestival_esp
Cartagena
Loved Sonnets for Albert by Anthony Joseph - his best poetry book to date. He's been a poet, novelist, lyricist, essayist for decades and his deserved
@tseliotprize
win is testament to his talent, tenacity, creativity and to these changing, more pluralistic, times.
#anthonyjoseph
Loved this fabulous interview with Diana Evans
@DianaEvansOP
, about her fantastic fourth novel, A HOUSE FOR ALICE, in the
@guardian
by Sara Collins
@mrsjaneymac
. Published April 4th but you can pre-order now.
...and Mz Evaristo of Suburbia had a very nice time in Ljubljana, Slovenia, at the Fabula Literary Festival c/o
@beletrina
publishers to promote MANIFESTO. Thanx to them & my Slovenian translator, Katja Zakrajsek, who won the top translation award for GWO, published by
Charlie Evaristo-Boyce's BANNED, curated by
@SabinaDesir
at Turner Contemporary, Margate. Silkscreen images of US Airforce men & women. 2500 stationed in Ramsgate in the 50s. The US tried to implement segregation over here but faced local resistance.
@CEvaristoBoyce
@TCMargate
Colombian author, Juan Gabriel Vasquez, who was made an International Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
@RSLiterature
last year (one of 12 out of over 200 noms), reading at the
@hayfestival_esp
Cartagena poetry gala yesterday, alongside Mz E, who read from Lara.
"I’ve been following the Forward for about thirty years now and I’ve long admired how it’s progressed and flourished through the decades" - we're so excited to have
@BernardineEvari
as Jury Chair of the 2023
#ForwardPrizes
collections!
Submissions open tomorrow!
We are delighted to announce the shortlists for Jhalak Prize and Jhalak Children's & Young Adult Prize for 2023.
Congratulations to all shortlisted authors.
#jhalakprize23
Aminata Kanneh-Mason - a talented & dedicated young woman who gives us hope for the future. Just turned 18! My nomination for inspirational girls under- 19yo's in this month's issue of
@GraziaUK
mag
@KadiatuKM
@thekannehmasons
There are many important, moving and powerfully-constructed poems in MANORISM by
@YomiSode
- about the self, family, society, struggle, culture & cultures, heritage, hostility and masculinity. I found an exciting and thought-provoking read.
@PenguinUKBooks
Contrary to incorrect media reporting (which has proliferated in the past week), the
@RSLiterature
put out 2 tweets in support of Salman Rushdie when he was stabbed, as did I, a personal tweet. I deleted the first one in a mass delete ages ago, but the second was quoted in the
Gorgeous, glorious, joyful, inspiring, life-affirming, metamorphosing & transformative immersive art experience. 'David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)'. 85 and still rocking it. But why not? Age is a number.
@_LightRoomLDN
Kings X
#davidhockney
We’re thrilled to announce our intention to launch a new annual prize, the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction!
We're seeking sponsorship for the Non-Fiction Prize, to amplify female voices & books that inform, entertain and disrupt
Share to spread the word:
This week's promo/media trip was to magnificent Madrid for the Spanish translation of MANIFESTO by Julia Osuna Aguilar for AdN Alianza Editorial. Thanks to Capitulo Uno International Literary Festival & Mar Garcia Puig for the interview (a feminist writer and MP) &
So nice to see this video again, such a special moment. I love spending time with my family and playing music with them! So proud to see
@IsataKm
host the first episode! It's my turn this Sunday and I will be sharing the music that has inspired me throughout my life and career!
Saw this on Sunday
@LondonPalladium
. Loved it, we were rolling in the aisles, we were moved, we were in awe and we were all on our feet at the end. Go see
@Dawn_French
. She's still at the top of her game!
From
@SaffronBurrows_
, via
@TheCircleNGO
, this is an incredibly powerful film with a vital message at the start of this year's
#16daysofactivism
on violence against women and girls. Please watch, share, and support the vital work discussed.
I was not talking about you
@SalmanRushdie
in my COMMENT IS FREE piece (as opp. to the news item - with errors).
@RSLiterature
put out TWO statements in support of you when you were stabbed. I also put out a personal tweet. They will send you these. Too many lies are circulating.
For me,
#TheBansheesofInishirin
is also about an isolated, inwards-looking community becoming crazily self-destructive in the absence of engagement with other societies. It rots from within. Quietly profound. 5*.
This - by Mikhail Sedov, a 'visual motion artist'
@msedov
&
@subframe_studio
on Insta. 'Exploring new c4d cloth engine.' I don't know what it means but I love this extraordinary moving image. Let's send more followers his way.
Name the writers from the Times Cheltenham Literature Festival-at-Sea 2022 aboard the luxurious 14-deck liner Queen Mary 2 sailing from NYC-Southampton over 7 days. Huge thx
@jojames100
&
@NicolaTux
& team
@CheltLitFest
& teams
@thetimes
&
@cunardline
. Much fun & food was had!
We're excited to announce the short-list of the inaugural Evaristo Prize for African Poetry (formerly the Brunel Prize)!
Visit APBF's website to learn the poets' names & read more about the prize:
@kwamedawes
@BernardineEvari
Thanks to Rancho Mirage Writers' Festival near Palm Springs for the trip to California. Snippets from my 'visual diary' on Instagram (
@bernardineevaristo
).
They need to change the culture. They will sometimes hound you for a quote, but once they have it, you're history, even though you've endorsed their book and helped to sell it. Its not acceptable and it's annoyed me for decades, literally.
This! I’ve lost count of the number of books where I’ve provided quotes and not received a finished copy.
Apart from anything else, it’s a missed social media marketing opportunity!
Please send us the finished books!
When you've spent a week on tour talking pretty much non-stop & all you want to do is sit in silence back home but you watch this doc instead & Cosby's crimes & the wider context of misogyny, power, sexual violence & complicity fill your silence instead.
Promo media & gig tour of the German translation of Mr Loverman by Tanja Handels for
@TropenVerlag
in Vienna
@RabenhofTheater
& Literature House Frankfurt (huge, amazing building with a restaurant). Next stop Literature House Munich tomorrow.
OMG! Have you SEEN our 2023 longlists? Aren't the stunning? Each one is a jewel, an entire treasure trove all by itself.
(Links to information on books and where to buy in replies)
#JhalakPrize23
In Paris this week to promote the French publication of Blonde Roots & Manifesto by my fantastic French publishers
@EditionsGlobe
. Four books to date by the translator supremo Francois Adelstain. Full interview here: Thanku
@evelinginparis
@FRANCE24
The judges for the Booker Prize 2023 are revealed. Esi Edugyan will chair the panel and will be joined by
@andoh_adjoa
,
@maryjean_chan
, James Shapiro and
@arobertwebb
Find out more about each of the judges here
Loved watching Sara Collins'
@mrsjaneymac
brilliant 4-part adaptation of her own brilliant, award-winning novel THE CONFESSIONS OF FRANNIE LANGTON on
@ITVX
. Great production, casting, acting, everything.
The RSL is flourishing with its current, outstanding leadership team. There are numerous schemes inc. prizes supporting more writers & involving substantially more Fellows' voices than ever before, with a groundbreaking 25 public events last year. This is the latest initiative.
Introducing Joanne Harris, the President of Judges for the Entente Littéraire Prize (Prix de l’Entente Littéraire) for UK-France young adult literature! We are delighted to have her on board, stay tuned to meet the rest of our judging panel ✨
@Joannechocolat
Hello, Séc-he, originally settled by Cahuilla Indians 2000 years ago; latterly known as Palm Springs by the colonisers (nod to
@LakotaMan1
). Looking forward to Rancho Mirage Writers' Festival.
4/ So, folks, you might not know about that world, or think it's not for you -- but don't let that put you off - this is great literature, and it will bridge any perceived gaps.
@PenguinUKBooks