Community

A longstanding advocate and activist for inclusion in literature and the arts, including initiating many successful projects to address under-representation.

(Selected)

2024: Founder of the (Royal Society of Literature) RSL Scriptorium Awards – a project to reward and support excellent writers (from under-represented and marginalised communities) who are struggling to find the time and space to do their work by offering a seaside cottage in Kent to ten writers a year who will each have the entire cottage to themselves. Open for applications: July 2025

2021 – Curator of the Black Britain: Writing Back book series with Hamish Hamilton/Penguin Random House, bringing out-of-circulation books back into print. There are 13 books republished as of 2024 including Without Prejudice (1997) by Nicola Williams; Bernard and the Cloth Monkey (1998) by Judith Bryan;The Fat Lady Sings (2000) by Jacqueline Roy; Sugar and Slate by Charlotte Williams; Dat’s Love by Leonora Brito; A Black Boy at Eton by Dillibe Onyeama; Growing Out: Black Hair and Black Pride in the Sixties by Barbara Blake Hannah; Britons Through Negro Spectacles by A.B.C. Merriman-Labor; Sequins for a Ragged Hem by Amryl Johnson, and My Father’s Daughter by Hannah Azieb Pool; The Dancing Face (1997) by Mike Phillips; Minty Alley (1936) by C. L. R. James; Incomparable World (1996) by S.I. Martin. Each book has an introduction by Bernardine.

2021-23: In her capacity as the Sky Arts Ambassador for Literature, she initiated the Sky Arts RSL Writer’s Awards, whereby 10 new women writers of colour are mentored by five leading writers over a year. (RSL = Royal Society of Literature.)

2021: Initiated and funded the Bernardine Evaristo Creative Writing Scholarship at Brunel University.

2012-2022: Founded the 3K Brunel International African Poetry Prize with the aim of  developing poetry from Africa at a time when few African poets were getting published. In 2022 the Prize was taken over by the African Poetry Book Fund (University of Nebraska) and renamed the Evaristo African Poetry Prize. Many of the nominated and winning poets have gone on to become leading figures in global poetry: Winners include: Warsan Shire (Somalia), Liyou Libsekal (Ethiopia), Safia Elhillo (Sudan) & Nick Makoha (Uganda), Hiwot Adilow (Ethiopia), Theresa Lola (Nigeria) & Momtaza Mehri (Somalia), Nadra Mabrouk (Egypt) & Jamila Osman (Somalia), Rabha Ashry (Egypt), Romeo Oriogun (Nigeria), Othuke Umukoro (Nigeria), Zibusiso Mpofu (Zimbabwe), Gbenga Adesina (Nigeria) & Chekwube O. Danladi (Nigeria). https://www.africanpoetryprize.org/previous-shortlists

2007: Founded The Complete Works (2007-2017), a mentoring programme for poets of colour that selected thirty poets to be mentored by many of Britain’s leading poets, for one or two years each. Most of the mentored poets have now published at least one critically-acclaimed poetry book and since the scheme have won all of Britain’s top poetry prizes including the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award three times, the Forward prizes four times and the TS Eliot Award for Poetry twice. Poets on the scheme: Mona Arshi, Rowyda Amin, Karen McCarthy-Woolf, Shazea Quarashi, Denise Saul, Jay Bernard,  Malika Booker, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Sarah Howe, Warsan Shire, Leo Boix, Jennifer Lee Tsai, Adam Lowe, Mir Mahfuz Ali, Will Harris, Ian Humphries, Nick Makoha, Mir Mahfuz Ali, Momtaza Mehri, Roger Robinson, Yomi Sode, Kayo Chinongyi, Rishi Dastidar, Edward Doegar, Inua Ellams, Will Harris, Raymond Antrobus, Omikemi Natacha Bryan, Seni Senivirante, Degna Stone. The project has also produced four anthologies with Bloodaxe Books for each of the cohorts, including the final one, Mapping the Future (2024). Dr Nathalie Teitler was Director of the project for ten years.

2006: Initiated the Free Verse report into the lack of publishing opportunities for poets of colour in the UK, which revealed that under 1% of all poetry books were written by poets of colour. This was commissioned by Arts Council London and produced by Spread the Word Literature Development Agency. This led Bernardine to found The Complete Works.

1997: Initiated and organised Tracing Paper for Spread the Word, the first conference on black British writing, held at the Museum of London.

1995: Founding Director of Spread the Word  (1995-ongoing) literature development agency with Ruth Borthwick, committed to providing a wide range of top quality creative writing workshops, courses and talk shops, especially aimed at groups under-represented in literature. Organised the seminal Afro Style School series of workshops for poets of colour (1996, 1997) and many courses and events for women and writers from under-represented communities.

1995: Initiated and organised Future Histories for the Black Theatre Forum, the first major conference on black theatre in Britain, held at the South Bank Centre, London.

1982: Co-founded  Theatre of Black Women (1982-1988) Britain’s first black women’s theatre company, to give artistic control to black women in theatre. Co-founded with fellow Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama graduates Patricia St. Hilaire and Paulette Randall. Produced several plays including Jackie Kay’s first play, Chiaroscuro, through a development process.