Bernardine Evaristo to Give Reading at UNL

Award-winning British writer Bernardine Evaristo will give a public reading of her work on November 7 at an event co-sponsored by Prairie Schooner, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s international literary journal.

The event will take place at the Van Brunt Visitors Center from 5:00 to 7:30 and is free and open to the public. Evaristo will sign copies of her books after the reading, during a catered reception to follow.  The event is presented through a partnership between the department of English and Prairie Schooner, along with other UNL sponsors including the Department of History, the Institute for Ethnic Studies, the College of Arts and Sciences, and Women’s and Gender Studies. We’re thrilled that we can bring such a high-profile, prestigious author to UNL,” Marco Abel, chair of the English department, said. “That we’re able to give our community the opportunity to meet Evaristo in person is the direct result of the collaborative spirit at UNL and is testimony to the generosity of the various units whose support was instrumental for our ability to arrange this event.”

Evaristo is the author of seven books, most recently Mr. Loverman (Akashic Books, 2014). Mr. Loverman received a positive review in The New York Times, where Ellery Washington notes “Evaristo’s confident control of the language” and “vibrant use of humor, rhythm, and poetry.” Evaristo writes in many genres, including prose novels, verse novels, scripts, and non-fiction—often mixing elements of each within the same book. She is also an editor, literary critic, playwright, and essayist.

Evaristo is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and the recipient of an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honors List in 2009. She has won the Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize, EMMA Best Book Award, Big Red Read Award, Orange Youth Panel Award, NESTA Fellowship Award and the Arts Council of England Writers’ Award in 2000. She is the founder and director of the Brunel University African Poetry Prize. She also serves on the Editorial Board of the African Poetry Book Fund, based at the University of Nebraska.

To learn more about Evaristo, her books, and her most recent activities, visit her website, http://www.bevaristo.com. To learn more about Prairie Schooner, visit http://www.prairieschooner.unl.edu.