Manifesto: On Never Giving Up
I haven’t yet had the chance to read Evaristo’s Booker Prize-winning Girl, Woman, Other, but I thought I’d give her memoir a listen. Evaristo recounts her childhood in England, growing up with eight siblings and a Nigerian father and Catholic mother, and how her drive toward a creative life helped her find her writing voice. Poetry and the theater occupied her early creative years, during which she also explored her sexuality with several queer relationships (one deeply unhealthy), until she moved to writing fiction (and eventually met and married her husband).
The story of Evaristo’s life is interesting, but it’s her compelling voice and deep determination in the face of every obstacle that stand out. Her strength to push–and push hard–toward creative pursuits and success is inspiring. Evaristo narrates the audiobook and it’s worth the listen for any artist.
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Publisher’s Description
Bernardine Evaristo’s 2019 Booker Prize win was a historic and revolutionary occasion, with Evaristo being the first Black woman and first Black British person ever to win the prize in its fifty-year history. Girl, Woman, Other was named a favorite book of the year by President Obama and Roxane Gay, was translated into thirty-five languages, and has now reached more than a million readers.
Evaristo’s astonishing nonfiction debut, Manifesto, is a vibrant and inspirational account of Evaristo’s life and career as she rebelled against the mainstream and fought over several decades to bring her creative work into the world. With her characteristic humor, Evaristo describes her childhood as one of eight siblings, with a Nigerian father and white Catholic mother, tells the story of how she helped set up Britain’s first Black women’s theatre company, remembers the queer relationships of her twenties, and recounts her determination to write books that were absent in the literary world around her. She provides a hugely powerful perspective to contemporary conversations around race, class, feminism, sexuality, and aging. She reminds us of how far we have come, and how far we still have to go. In Manifesto, Evaristo charts her theory of unstoppability, showing creative people how they too can visualize and find success in their work, ignoring the naysayers.
Both unconventional memoir and inspirational text, Manifesto is a unique reminder to us all to persist in doing work we believe in, even when we might feel overlooked or discounted. Evaristo shows us how we too can follow in her footsteps, from first vision, to insistent perseverance, to eventual triumph.