On the Road: Bernardine Evaristo interviewed by Karen Hooper

In this interview, the poet/novelist Bernardine Evaristo gives an in-depth account of her travels to Nigeria and Brazil to explore her heritage, which inspired her semi-autobiographical first novel-in-verse Lara. She documents the importance of revealing a black presence in England before the 1948 Windrush influx, as illustrated in her Roman extravaganza The Emperor’s Babe. She explains the importance of travelling to Europe to uncover its hidden black history, as highlighted in her most recent first full-length novel, Soul Tourists. Throughout the interview Evaristo reveals her commitment to poetry, drama and other forms that impact on her work. She also reveals an innovative and erudite second-generation thinker, who is pushing and questioning the boundaries and definitions of gender, blackness and post-colonial ideas.