Bernardine Evaristo's Blog

SHORT GUARDIAN COURSE – APRIL

bevaristo — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:13:56 +0000

I’m currently teaching the inaugural UEA/Guardian beginner, six-month fiction course which has been an absolute delight to teach. I’m also going to be teaching this short weekend course in April with the novelist Ross Raisin. Check it out:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian-masterclasses/creative-writing-style-and-standpoint?newsfeed=true

Chair of the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2012

bevaristo — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 09:20:32 +0000

I’m chairing the Commonwealth Short Story Prize 2012 and it’s now open for entries. Deadline is 30th November so get your skates on! See link below.

http://www.commonwealthwriters.org/prizes/commonwealth-short-story-prize/2012-prize/

1st Monograph on my Writing by Sebnem Toplu

bevaristo — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:16:02 +0000

The first monograph on my work, written by academic Sebnem Toplu, has justbeen published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing (Sept. 2011)
http://tinyurl.com/fictionunbound

‘Comes the Night’ by Hollis Hampton-Jones. (Penguin)

bevaristo — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 11:18:25 +0000

This short novel is beautifully-written. It is as concise and carefully-crafted
as poetry without a single, superfluous word, sentence or sentiment – no excess.
An American teenager called Meade, living in Paris, descends
into anorexia while suffering from dependency on drugs, alcohol and her twin brother, Ben Ho. She seeks to solve psychological problems with the feel-good effects of chemical consumption – struggling with excess and self-denial, craving and restraint. The novel gets deep inside her subconscious as we experience her (dysmorphic) body, her burgeoning modelling career and her unhealthy relationships, through her increasingly unreal sense of reality.

This is a perfect work of fiction about the imperfection of perfection and addiction.

I enjoyed Hampton-Jones’ first novel, ‘Vicious Spring’ in 2003, but this new one is even better.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_0_15?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=comes+the+night&sprefix=comes+the+night

TEACHING UEA/GUARDIAN MASTERCLASSES

bevaristo — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:27:03 +0000

I am teaching the UEA*/Guardian inaugural fiction creative writing course:
‘How to Tell a Story’.

It starts in September 2011 and runs once a week for six months
at the Guardian HQ, Kings Place, central London.

*The University of East Anglia is the UK’s oldest and most established
creative writing school.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian-masterclasses/how-to-tell-a-story

Essay/Broadcast – BBC Radio 3

bevaristo — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 10:32:57 +0000

I was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 to write and record an essay about a book that had a major impact on my life. I chose ‘For Coloured Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow is Enuf’ by Ntozake Shange. It was broadcast in March 2011 but is no longer
available on BBC iPlayer.

I will link to the audio recording when I can work out how to do it!

Workshop: Saturday 19th March

bevaristo — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 18:18:25 +0000

At the Ideas Store, Whitechapel.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

All families have histories and all stories start somewhere. Let’s put the two together in this fun creative writing workshop that explores how to turn family histories into stories. We will fictionalise people, situations, conflicts, romances, anecdotes, high dramas. Bring something along to stimulate ideas: photographs, letters, clothing, jewellery, school/ marriage/divorce/death certificates, food, a smell, keys, jewellery, court documents (!), even a song (with music player).

LINK

http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/index.php?id=events&event=939

Teaching @ Arvon October 2011

bevaristo — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 12:20:26 +0000

I’m teaching an Arvon Foundation course on characterization with the novelist Irene Sabatini this October. Open for bookings. (Bursaries available if you can persuade and get in early.)

http://www.arvonfoundation.org/pc649.html

Norwich Writers’ Centre

bevaristo — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:28:21 +0000

Saturday 26th Marc: 10-4.
I’m running a workshop on turning real life events into fiction.

LINK: http://www.writerscentrenorwich.org.uk/Events-all/strangerthanfictionwithbernardineevaristo.aspx

Catherine Smith’s ‘Biting Point’

bevaristo — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 20:46:52 +0000

Catherine is a superb poet and great woman with two poetry collections under her belt, ‘The Butcher’s Wife’ and ‘Lip’. ‘Biting Point’ is is her first collection of short stories, just published by speechbubble books and available on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Biting-Point-Catherine-Smith/dp/0956730604

To find out more about Catherine visit her website:
http://www.catherinesmithwriter.co.uk/2.html

BITING POINT
A woman falls apart as she prepares for her secret lover’s funeral….A child builds a magical sand-castle as her parents’ marriage crumbles…A young woman confesses to her part in a catastrophically cruel childhood stunt….A love-struck teenager’s driving lesson reveals a devastating gap between fantasy and reality…..

‘Always brave, always original, always full of surprises and sometimes very sexy, The Biting Point pulls no punches in taking us to the darkness at the very edge of our dreams. Gloriously subversive and beautifully told.’ VANESSA GEBBIE

‘Catherine Smith has a voice that beguiles: she draws you in with the everyday then turns the world upside down.’ ROBYN YOUNG