Barnard College Presents a Reading by Novelist and Fiction Writing Instructor Bernardine Evaristo Nov. 12

Contact: Petra Tuomi, Office of Public Affairs, 212-854-7907

New York, NY, October 23, 2002—Acclaimed British novelist and Barnard fiction writing instructor Bernardine Evaristo will be reading from her latest novel, The Emperor’s Babe, on Tuesday, November 12 at 6:30 p.m. in the Sulzberger Parlor, 3rd Floor Barnard Hall (117th St. & Broadway).

Evaristo is widely regarded as one of Britain’s fastest-rising literary stars. Her most recent novel, The Emperor’s Babe (Viking 2002), is a tightly woven piece of poetry, fiction, history and myth. The story follows the life of Zuleika, a Sudanese girl born to immigrant parents, as she delves into the intricacies of race, gender, and class in Roman-occupied London in the year 211 AD. She is married off at the age of 11 to a merchant, Felix, who is three times her age, but later becomes the lover, or the "Emperor’s Babe," of Septimus Severus. This novel was named a Book of the Year by three of the UK’s leading newspapers, including The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Independent Sunday.

Her first book, Lara, also took critics by storm. Autobiographically inspired, it is the story of a girl of mixed race growing up in the London suburbs of the 1960’s and 1970’s. Told through Lara’s own voice, as well as those of her ancestors, friends, and family, the story spans seven generations of family history and follows the story from Brazil to Lagos, Ireland, and finally, London.

Evaristo was born to a Nigerian father and English mother, and grew up in greater London. Besides her two novels, she has compiled a number of anthologies, including IC3, The Penguin Book of New Black Writing in Britain and Empire Windrush, Fifty Years of Writing about Black Britain. Her writing has been published in a number of newspapers and magazines, such as The Guardian and Poetry Review, and she has received the EMMA Best Novel Award for Lara, and the Arts Council Writers Award. She is currently a fiction writing instructor at Barnard College, and has previously served as writer-in-residence at the Museum of London, the State University of New York at Binghamton, and the University of Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa.

The event is sponsored by the English Department and the Creative Writing Program. No tickets or reservations are necessary. For more information please contact Timea Szell, 212-854-2115.