Bernardine Evaristo nominated for literary awards across the world.

Bernardine Evaristo’s novel Girl, Woman, Other is in the running for The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, The Ferro-Grumley Award, British Book Awards, and the Australian Book Industry Awards.

Since Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize for her novel Girl, Woman, Other in 2019, the UK-based novelist and academic has had a dramatic change of fortunes for her career. She made it to the New York Times Best Sellers list which very few writers, let alone those with an African background, have been on.

The last few weeks have been especially good for the novelist who “is feeling very blessed these days.” Here are SOME of the awards that she is currently in the running for.

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020 longlist.

The Orwell Prizes, named in honour of English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic George Orwell, are the UK’s most prestigious prizes for political writing. Starting in 1994, winners of the Orwell Prize were recognised in the categories of political writing and journalism. The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction, introduced in 2019, had Novuyo Rosa Tshuma and Diana Evans making the shortlist and Anna Burns winning the prize.

The Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2020, sponsored by AM Heath & Richard Blair, is judged by Jude Kelly (Chair), Tom Gatti, Deputy Editor, New Statesman Sarah Shaffi, Journalist, and Dr Matthew Sperling, Academic. This team unveiled the longlist for this year’s award which includes Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo and Colson Whitehead. The full longlist is;

• Broken Jaw, Minoli Salgado
• Ducks, Newburyport, Lucy Ellmann
• Girl, Edna O’Brien
• Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo
• Heaven My Home, Attica Locke
• Spring, Ali Smith
• The Man Who Saw Everything, Deborah Levy
• Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
• The Topeka School, Ben Lerner
• The Travellers, Regina Porter
• The Wall, John Lanchester
• This Paradise, Ruby Cowling
• To Calais, In Ordinary Time, James Meek

On the announcement, Evaristo stated on her Twitter, “Dead chuffed to sit on this longlist alongside writers whose books I’ve read & admired: Lucy Ellman, Deborah Levy, Ali Smith — with others yet to read.”

Dead chuffed to sit on this longlist alongside writers whose books I’ve read & admired: Lucy Ellman, Deborah Levy, Ali Smith — with others yet to read. ‘All writing is political, but some writing is more political than others.’ Mz Evaristo of Suburbia, 9/4/20. @TheOrwellPrize https://t.co/zfsWydWKxU

— Bernardine Evaristo (@BernardineEvari) April 9, 2020

The shortlist and winner will be announced in due course.

The United States’ Ferro-Grumley Award 2019 finalist.

The Ferro-Grumley Award is an annual literary award for LGBTQ Fiction presented in memory of U.S. writers Robert Ferro and Michael Grumley since 1988. Some of the previous winners are Bernardine Evaristo (2015), Michael Golding (2016), Cathleen Schine (2017), Alistair McCartney (2018), and John R. Gordon (2019). The finalists for this year’s awards, announced on March 3, with Bernardine Evaristo going for a second win are;

• A Generous Spirit: Selected Work by Beth Brant, edited by Janice Gould (Sinister Wisdom)
• Girl, Woman, Other, by Bernardine Evaristo (Black Cat / Grove Atlantic)
• Lie with Me, by Philippe Besson; translated by Molly Ringwald (Scribner)
• Like Wings, Your Hands, by Elizabeth Earley (Red Hen Press)
• On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, by Ocean Vuong (Penguin Press)
• Red at the Bone, by Jacqueline Woodson (Riverhead)

The winners, who will receive $1000, will be revealed in New York City, USA on April 30, 2020.

British Book Awards 2020

The British Book Awards or Nibbies, launched in 1990, are literary awards for the best UK writers and their works, administered by The Bookseller. The shortlists for the awards were announced on March 30 with Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other making the fiction book of the year cut. My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite also featured in the Crime & Thriller Book of the Year and Audiobook Book of the Year categories.  Below are the categories that featured these writers in full.

Fiction Book of the Year

• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Chatto).
• The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman (David Fickling Books and PRH).
• The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes (MJ).
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (Hamish Hamilton).
• Lies, Lies, Lies by Adele Parks (HQ)
• Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris (Bonnier Books UK)

Crime & Thriller Book of the Year

• How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley (HarperCollins)
• My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Atlantic Books)
• Imposter by L J Ross (Dark Skies Publishing)
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides (The Orion Publishing Group)
• Blue Moon by Lee Child (Transworld)

Audiobook Book of the Year

• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Penguin Random House).
• Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux (Macmillan)
• The Body by Bill Bryson (Audible)
• My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite (W.F. Howes)
• The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray (Bloomsbury)
• The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (Bonnier Books UK)
• The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman (Penguin Random House)
• The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (Penguin Random House)

The winners of the awards will be known on June 29.

Australian Book Industry Awards 2020

The Australian Book Industry Awards are publishers’ and literary awards held by the Australian Publishers Association “to celebrate the achievements of authors and publishers in bringing Australian books to readers”. The longlists for 2020 were announced on March 2 and Bernardine Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other was listed in the International Book of the Year category. Below are those in the running.

• Catch and Kill, Ronan Farrow (Hachette Australia, Fleet)
• Fleishman is in Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Hachette Australia, Wildfire)
• Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo (Penguin Random House Australia, Hamish Hamilton)
• Lanny, Max Porter (Faber, Faber)
• The Dutch House, Ann Patchett, (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury Publishing)
• The Testaments, Margaret Atwood (Penguin Random House Australia, Chatto & Windus)
• Three Women, Lisa Taddeo (Bloomsbury Publishing, Bloomsbury Circus)
• Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens (Hachette Australia, Corsair)

The winners of these awards will be pronounced on April 29, 2020.