Booker Prize winner, Bernardine Evaristo, for Lagos’ Ake Festival
Joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, Bernadine Evaristo, will be in a book chat at the Ake Book and Arts Festival. The event is scheduled to hold from October 24 to 27, 2019 in Lagos. A Nigerian-Brit, Evaristo recently emerged co-winner of the Booker Prize (alongside Margaret Atwood) for her novel, ‘Girl, Woman, Other,’ […]
Booker Prize winner, Bernardine Evaristo, for Lagos’ Ake Festival
Joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, Bernadine Evaristo, will be in a book chat at the Ake Book and Arts Festival.
The event is scheduled to hold from October 24 to 27, 2019 in Lagos.
A Nigerian-Brit, Evaristo recently emerged co-winner of the Booker Prize (alongside Margaret Atwood) for her novel, ‘Girl, Woman, Other,’ which follows the lives and struggles of twelve characters, mostly women, black and British, who tell the stories of their families, friends and lovers, across the country and through the years.
Evaristo is the award-winning author of eight books and numerous other published and produced works that span the genres of novels, poetry, verse fiction, short fiction, essays, literary criticism, and radio and theatre drama. Her writing and projects are based around her interest in the African diaspora. She is presently Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London.
Ake Arts and Book Festival, founded by Lola Shoneyin, is an annual event that brings together writers, artists and thinkers from within and outside Nigeria. In its seventh edition, this year’s theme is ‘Black Bodies, Grey Matter.’
According to information found on its website, the 2019 festival will “examine the physical, mental and emotional violence that has been and is being inflicted on black bodies, particularly those of women through conflict, colonialism, patriarchy, our cultural practices, and our attitudes.”
It will also explore “specific phenomena, such as scarification, body image, tattoos, stereotyping, gender nonconformity, and colourism. Special attention will be given to issues around mental health on the African continent.”