Bernardine Evaristo is a British author and academic. Her novel Girl, Woman, Other jointly won the Booker Prize in 2019 alongside Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments, making her the first Black woman to win this Prize. Evaristo is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and President of the Royal Society of Literature, the second woman and the first black person to serve in this role since the Society was founded in 1820. Evaristo is a longstanding advocate for the inclusion of writers and artists of colour. She founded the Brunel International African Poetry Prize (2012–2022), and initiated The Complete Works poetry mentoring scheme (2007–2017). She co-founded Spread the Word writer development agency with Ruth Borthwick (1995–present) and Britain›s first black women›s theatre company (1982–1988), Theatre of Black Women.