The UC DAVIS Department of African American and African Studies presents a Brown Bag featuring: BERNADINE EVARISTO and JAY BERNARD of the Breaking Ground: Black British Writers US Tour
MONDAY MAY 2, 2016 HART HALL 2215 12-1:30
Bernardine Evaristo is the award-winning British-
Nigerian author of seven books including her
latest novel, Mr Loverman, about a
septuagenarian Caribbean London man who is
“closet homosexual” (2013). Her writing is
characterized by experimentation and subverting
the myths of various Afro-diasporic and British
histories and identities. Her writing also spans
verse fiction, poetry, essays, literary criticism for
the Guardian and Independent, and verse drama
for theatre and BBC radio. She earned her PhD in
Creative Writing at Goldmsiths, University of
London and she is currently Professor of Creative
Writing at Brunel University London. Her most
recent awards are the Triangle Publishing Ferro
Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction (USA) and the
Jerwood Fiction Uncovered Prize (UK), both for
Mr Loverman.
Jay Bernard won the 2004 London Respect
Slam and is the recipient of a Foyle Young
Poet award (2005). She is from London and
has been published in in numerous
international journals and magazines. Her
first pamphlet Your Sign is Cuckoo, Girl was
the Poetry Book Society’s pamphlet choice
for summer that year. She was the
inaugural 2012 writer-in-residence at the
Arts House and National University of
Singapore and 2013 City Read young writer
in residence at London Metropolitan
Archives. Her second book, English
Breakfast, appeared in 2013. Jay is also a
programmer for BFI Flare: London LGBT
Film Festival and a graphic artist. Her work
has appeared on the cover of Wasafiri and
in Chroma, Diva and Litro. Jay notes: “I am
interested in graphic/public art, film,
literature, technology, cyber-feminism,
queerness and impending doom(s).”
BREAKING GROUND is coordinated and
produced by Speaking Volumes Live
Literature Productions, UK
http://www.speaking-volumes.org.uk/
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE
BROWN BAG and OTHER UC DAVIS
BREAKING GROUND EVENTS
CONTACT: Elisa Joy White
ejowhite@ucdavis.edu