The 2019 Booker Prize winner, Bernardine Evaristo, will be the 2020 Golding Speaker at Marlborough LitFest on Friday 25 September at Marlborough Town Hall.
She will be talking about her latest book which won the 2019 Booker Prize - Girl, Woman, Other. The book was also included in Barack Obama’s 19 Top Books of 2019 list.
Bernardine, an Anglo-Nigerian author, shared the 2019 Booker Prize with Margaret Atwood. She first visited Marlborough LitFest in 2013 and the festival is delighted to welcome her back.
Bernardine has written eight books. Her work encompasses poetry, verse fiction, short fiction, essays as well as radio and theatre drama. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London and Vice Chair of the Royal Society of Literature. She is a literary activist for inclusion, having founded several successful initiatives. She was made an MBE in 2009.
Marlborough LitFest hosts an annual Golding Speaker to highlight Marlborough’s long connection with the Nobel Laureate and Booker Prize winner, William Golding. A house on The Green bears a blue plaque commemorating where he once lived. Past Golding Speakers have included Ben Okri, Rose Tremain, Will Self, Lionel Shriver, Louis de Bernieres, Fay Weldon and Howard Jacobson.
Kay Newman of Marlborough LitFest said: “Our Golding Speakers are one of the highlights of the Festival and we are thrilled that Bernardine is coming this year. To have a recent Booker Prize-winner attending the LitFest is a real feather in our cap.”
The eleventh Marlborough LitFest will run from Thursday September 24 to Sunday September 27. It aims to inspire its audience with a breadth of authors and events. It will feature new and young writers as well as established names in fiction and non-fiction, children’s authors, workshops and poetry events. In addition, an outreach programme will encourage new audiences.
Festival brochures will be available in late June and the festival box office will open in early July. For more information, visit www.marlboroughlitfest.org
Obituary: Brian Ashley founder of the Marlborough College Summer School
