"I wanted to explore the idea that as Black women in British society we are ‘othered’ by people who are not us," said Bernardine Evaristo as she introduced her Booker Prize-winning novel Girl Woman Other at Winter Weekend.
From Newcastle to Cornwall, from the birth of the twentieth century to the teens of the twenty-first, Girl, Woman, Other follows a cast of 12 characters on their personal journeys through this country and the past hundred years. They're each looking for something – a shared past, an unexpected future, a place to call home, somewhere to fit in, a lover, a missed mother, a lost father, even just a touch of hope.
"I have an idea for a character, but they develop as I write. It’s almost like my characters write themselves into being. As I write, they materialise in front of me," said Evaristo. "I want people to hear their voices as I heard them when writing."
Touching on the criticism of cultural appropriation often levelled at her fellow novelists, Evaristo added: "My characters may offend people, but that’s not my primary concern… refuse to construct a character that will appease everybody. That’s impossible to do anyway."
Evaristo is the Anglo-Nigerian award-winning author of seven other books of fiction and verse fiction that explore aspects of the African diaspora: past, present, real, imagined. Her writing also spans short fiction, reviews, essays, drama and writing for BBC radio. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature.
Explore the full Hay Festival Winter Weekend programme here.