Behind the Book — Episode 121
Fusion Fiction: Bernardine Evaristo on Twelve Voices and No Full Stops
Nora Ellis in conversation with Bernardine Evaristo
Recorded July 15, 2026 · 01:49
https://behindthebookfm.com/episodes/girl-woman-other

This interview is a voiced dramatisation written by our team, drawn from the
author's publicly documented remarks on craft.

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[00:00] Nora Ellis:
You published for decades before the Booker. What kept you working through the quiet years?

[00:06] Bernardine Evaristo:
Sheer bloody-mindedness, and a community. I came from theatre, so I never expected to be discovered — I expected to build. I ran my own company, I toured, I taught. The prize arrived when I was sixty and by then I had eight books and no illusions. That's actually a very safe way to receive good news.

[00:28] Nora Ellis:
Girl, Woman, Other has twelve central characters and almost no full stops. How did that form arrive?

[00:36] Bernardine Evaristo:
I call it fusion fiction. I wanted the rhythm of poetry with the reach of a novel, so I dropped most of the punctuation and let the line breaks carry the breath. And twelve characters because one Black British woman cannot represent all of us. Put twelve in a book and the reader can't reduce any of them to a type.

[00:56] Nora Ellis:
How do you keep twelve voices distinct?

[00:59] Bernardine Evaristo:
I write each one's history far beyond what's on the page — where they went to school, what they're embarrassed about, what music was playing when they were nineteen. Ninety percent never appears. But you can hear the difference between a woman who has been listened to all her life and one who hasn't, and that's in the sentence shape, not the dialect.

[01:20] Nora Ellis:
What's the purpose of the work for you now?

[01:24] Bernardine Evaristo:
To put people into literature who were left out of it, and to enjoy myself doing it. I'm not interested in worthy books. I want them alive, funny, argumentative — the way a room full of women actually sounds.

[01:39] Nora Ellis:
Advice to a writer who feels they've started too late?

[01:43] Bernardine Evaristo:
There is no timetable. The only thing that disqualifies you is stopping.