Bernardine Evaristo: Girl, Woman, Other

This event has been cancelled as part of our preventative measures to stem the spread of coronavirus COVID-19. If you have tickets for this event, we’ll be in touch with you directly via email; refunds will be automatically issued.

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Long before winning the 2019 Man Booker Prize for her polyphonic novel, Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo was a force of nature in British literature. A novelist, critic, poet, theatre-maker and editor, Evaristo is known for her remarkable range with voice and form. She’s written verse novels (Lara) and speculative fiction (Blonde Roots) as well as plays, essays and radio documentaries.

In London in the 1980s, Evaristo co-founded the trail-blazing Theatre for Black Women. In Girl, Woman, Other, the opening night of a black feminist’s play is the device that connects the 12 loosely interconnected stories that make up the novel. These are the stories of very different characters – mostly black British women – including a playwright, a banker, a teacher, an elderly landowner and an activist-influencer.

In each chapter, Evaristo inhabits the perspective of a different character. She explores how the characters navigate cruelties and injustices and how they embrace risk, seize chances and chase thrills. It’s a funny and profound novel that shows women challenging, confounding, betraying, adoring and sustaining each other.

At Deakin Edge in May, Evaristo will talk contradiction and complexity in the novel today.

This event will be Auslan interpreted.