“This book reveals what it took for me to keep moving forward and growing; and for you who have been struggling for a long time, who might recognize your own stories in mine, I hope it will serve as inspiration as you journey along your own paths toward realizing your ambitions.”

The author of the international bestseller Girl, Woman, Other, discusses her background, family, life, and choices leading up to her winning the Booker Prize in 2019. The first black woman to win this significant accolade, President of the Royal Society of Literature in the United Kingdom this year, Bernardine Evaristo found herself, after decades of working as a writer, teacher, singer, activist, from the margins to the global stage.

In The Manifesto, she talks about the racism she experienced from her childhood and the difficulties she faced along the way related to race, gender, social class, diversity, sexuality, and the passage of youth. The Manifesto is a book about how to never give up. A personal confession about the courage she showed, how every obstacle she overcame in her personal or professional life made her “more resilient and determined to keep going.”

Contents:

Introduction

One: cultural heritage, childhood, family, origins

Two: homes, apartments, rooms, households

Three: the women and men who came and went

Four: theater, community, performance, politics

Five: poetry, novels, verse novels, hybrid fiction

Six: influences, sources, language, education

Seven: self, ambition, transformation, activism

Conclusion

Evaristo's Manifesto

Acknowledgments