Bernardine Evaristo defies expectations.

The Booker Prize-winning novelist challenges conventions regarding genre, grammar, and the potential of a working-class biracial woman.

Evaristo, 66, was recently awarded the 100,000-pound ($135,000) women’s Prize Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of her “transformative impact on literature and her unwavering dedication to uplifting under-represented voices.”

The award acknowledges both her efforts to promote women and writers of color, and her diverse body of work, including poetry, a memoir, and seven novels, notably “Girl, Woman, Other.”

“I just go wherever my inventiveness takes me,” she said. “I didn’t want to write the kind of novels that would take you on a predictable emotional or moral journey.”

A Diverse Body of Work

Evaristo had already experimented with autobiographical fiction, historical narratives, and alternate realities when she won the Booker in 2019 for “Girl, Woman, Other,” a novel presenting multiple perspectives through a dozen characters, primarily Black women with diverse ages, experiences, and sexual orientations.

She was the first woman of African heritage to receive the prize, established in 1969 and known for its transformative effect on writers’ careers.

Evaristo,who was 60 at the time,had been writing for decades. She believes the recognition “came at the right time for me.”

“Maybe I wouldn’t have handled it so well if I was younger,”

“Maybe I wouldn’t have handled it so well if I was younger,” she told the Associated Press from her London home. “It changed my career — in terms of book sales, foreign rights, translation, the way in which I was viewed as a writer. Various other opportunities came my way. And I felt that I had the foundations to handle that.”

Evaristo’s home, located on a quiet suburban street, is filled with light and comfort, featuring wooden floors, vibrant textiles, and a large wooden writing desk by the front window. Large photos of her Nigerian paternal grandparents are displayed on one wall. Her writing often explores her background as the london-born child of a Nigerian father and a white British mother.

Like much of evaristo’s work, “Girl, Woman, Other” defies easy categorization. She describes it as “fusion fiction” due to its blending of poetry and prose,creating a novel that celebrates the texture and rhythm of language.

“I kind of dispense with the rules of grammar,” she said. “I think I have 12 full stops in the novel.”

Despite its experimental nature, “Girl, Woman, Other” resonated with readers, selling over 1 million copies and being selected as one of Barack Obama’s books of the year.

A Passion for Poetry

Evaristo attributes her love of poetry to the church services of her Catholic upbringing, where she absorbed the rhythms of the Bible and sermons, “without realizing I was absorbing poetry.”

Even as she began writing novels, her passion for poetry remained, along with a desire to share stories of the African diaspora. One of her early successes, “The Emperor’s Babe,” is a verse novel set in Roman Britain.

“Most people think the Black history of Britain only began in the 20th century,” Evaristo said. “I wanted to write about a Black presence in Roman Britain — as there was a Black presence in Roman Britain 1,800 years ago.”

Another novel, “Blonde Roots,” is set in an option historical timeline where africans enslaved Europeans, and was nominated for a science-fiction award.

“Mr Loverman,” which focuses on a closeted gay 70-something antiguan Londoner, aimed to challenge stereotypical portrayals of Britain’s postwar Caribbean immigrants. It was recently adapted into a BBC television series starring lennie James and Sharon D. Clarke.

Promoting Equality

Her most recent award commemorates the 30th anniversary of the annual Women’s Prizes for English-language fiction and nonfiction.

Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse praised Evaristo’s “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.”

Evaristo, who teaches creative writing at Brunel University of London, intends to use the prize money to support other women writers through a future project.

She has a long history of involvement in initiatives aimed at creating a more level playing field for under-represented writers and is especially proud of Complete Works, a mentoring program for poets of color that she led for a decade.

“I set that up because I initiated research into how many poets of color were getting published in Britain at that time, and it was under 1%” of the total, she said. A decade later,it was 10%.

“It really has helped shift the poetry landscape in the U.K.,” she said.

Ongoing Progress

evaristo followed “Girl, Woman, Other” with “Manifesto,” a memoir detailing the overt racism she experienced during her 1960s London childhood, as well as her lifelong pursuit of creative expression and freedom.

Having grown up as an outsider,Evaristo is now firmly established in the arts community: a professor,Booker Prize winner,Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE),and president of the 200-year-old Royal Society of literature.

That achievement – being the first person of color and the second woman to lead the RSL – has faced some challenges. The society has been affected by free speech debates and disagreements over efforts to attract younger writers and diversify its membership, which some perceive as diminishing the prestige of membership.

Evaristo prefers not to discuss the controversy, emphasizing that as president, she does not manage the society’s operations.

She acknowledges that Britain has made significant progress since her childhood but stresses the need for continued vigilance.

“The country I grew up in is not the country I’m in today,” she said. “We’ve made a lot of progress, and I feel that we need to work hard to maintain it, especially in the current political climate where it feels as if the forces are against progress, and proudly so.

“Working towards an anti-racist society is something that we should value, and I hope we do, and that we don’t backslide too much.”