Bernardine Evaristo, Oyinkan Braithwaithe Win Big At The British Book Awards

Uchenna Emelife reports,

Two Nigerian writers, Bernardine Evaristo and Oyinkan Braithwaithe clinched major awards at the British Book Awards Yesterday, the 29th of June, 2020.
British-Nigerian Bernardine Evaristo won two categories, Author of the Year and her “Girl, Woman, Other” Fiction Book of the Year while Oyinkan Braithwaithe’s “My Sister, The Serial Killer” won Crime and Thriller Book of the Year.

Emerging from a stiff shortlist for Fiction Book of the Year with titles like joint Booker-winning "The Testaments" by Margaret Atwood, Evaristo's "Girl, Woman, Other" has added one more award to its seeming endless list.

Judges described Girl, Woman, Other as “an incredible piece of publishing”. They said: “The author’s ambition to debunk deeply embedded misconceptions, and the publisher’s determination to break Evaristo’s writing out to a much wider audience, presented a huge commercial challenge which means that success, when it came, had been harder fought for and more emphatically delivered.”

Other titles that contested for the category include The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman, The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes, Lies, Lies, Lies by Adele Parks and Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris.

Braithwaithe as well emerged victorious from a shortlist that had more published authors like Lee Child. Lee Child won 2019 Author of the year.
How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid, The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley, Imposter by L J Ross, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and Lee Child’s Blue Moon are the books MSTSK beat to the win.

In reaction to the award, Braithwaithe took to her social media an appreciation post. It reads in part: "I'm so pleased by this win. It has been a while now since I penned MSTSK, and it makes my heart swell that people continue to receive it so completely. Thank you to the judges @thebookseller #nibbies BritishBookAwards for this incredible honour."

"Oh my God, Oh my God, I'm crying. It's worth waiting 40 years. When these things come along, I'm 61 years of age now, and to suddenly get these things, the Booker and now this is just phenomenal. Thank you." Evaristo says (in part) in her acceptance speech.

Both Evaristo and Braithwaithe are the first black authors to win all of their categories.

Congratulations Bernardine Evaristo and Oyinkan Braithwaithe.

See full list of winners here.