Bernardine Evaristo is an award-winning British author, novelist, poet and playwright who became President of Rose Bruford College in January 2021. She began her creative journey as a teenager, performing at Greenwich Young People’s Theatre, before going on to co-found the pioneering theatre company Theatre of Black Women in the 1980s with fellow Rose Bruford alumni Paulette Randall and Patricia St. Hilaire.
Bernardine has since established an internationally acclaimed literary career. In 2019, she became the first Black woman to win the Booker Prize, sharing the award with Margaret Atwood for her novel Girl, Woman, Other. Her other celebrated novels include Mr Loverman (2013) and The Emperor’s Babe (2001). In 2025 she won the Women’s Prize for Fiction’s Outstanding Contribution Award, recognising her remarkable body of work.
The author of numerous works of fiction, verse fiction and poetry, Bernardine’s writing explores themes of identity, race, gender, history and the African diaspora. Her work has made a significant contribution to contemporary British literature and continues to reach readers around the world.