Novel Bernardine Evaristo to be president of the Royal Society of Literature | Bernardine Evaristo
Bernardine Evaristo will be the next president of the Royal Society of Literature, the first color writer to hold the position.
Evaristo, whose novel Girl, Woman, One won the Booker Award in 2019, will replace Marina Warner later this year. She will be the second female president in 200 years of human history.
He said he was “very proud” of being elected head of the party. The community “boldly embraced the 21st century as a great champion of equal cultural opportunities in literature”, he added.
“Storytelling is embedded in our DNA as human beings – embedded in the history of our lives, in our relationships, desires and conflicts, and it is a prism in which we explore and understand ourselves and the world we live in. Live. Literature is not simple, but important to our civilization.
“I am proud, therefore, to be the head of an acclaimed and strong literary organization that is actively and urgently engaged in including a wide range of great writers from all walks of life and places in Britain, and to reach out to the poor. the public through literature projects, which include introducing young people to schools to visiting British writers who visit, educate and discuss their work with them, ”he said.
Evaristo was the first black woman to win a Booker award, and the award moved her to appear after six previous novels. The girl, the woman, has been sold in a number of languages.
Daljit Nagra, chairman of RSL, said Evaristo was an outstanding writer and trailblazer. “As a writer you are talking about a wonderful background on the subject of poorly represented words, as a lawyer you have fought for neglected writers, and as a campaigner you have given a voice for the value of literature. Throughout the media, his voice is heard in an open, intellectual, and yet profound way. ”
RSL has also announced the first 12 writers in its international writing program, recognizing the contribution of writers around the world to English literature. The authors are: Don Mee Choi, Annie Ernaux, David Grossman, Jamaica Kincaid, Yan Lianke, Amin Maalouf, Alain Mabanckou, Javier Marías, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, Claudia Rankine, Olga Tokarczuk and Dubravka Ugrešić.
Evaristo grew up in south London with his Nigerian father and white English mother, along with seven siblings, at a time when it was “legal to discriminate against people based on their skin color”, he wrote in his memoir, the Manifesto, published last month.
He said his family “endured the naming of children who discriminated against their parents’ race, and the violent attacks on our home by thugs who threw bricks at the windows so often that when they were replaced, we know. they will be crushed again… As a child, you are greatly affected by this level of hostility unless you can teach it or explain it. You feel hated, even though you did nothing. ”
