Bernardine Evaristo

In her role as ambassador, writer Bernardine Evaristo collaborated with the Royal Society of Literature to create the Sky Arts RSL Writers Awards focused on discovering and nurturing talented emerging writers of colour, working across different literary forms. Then scheme was developed to counteract the under-representation of British writers of colour.

• There were five Awards available, providing each winner a ten hour-long mentoring session over the course of 12 months with a leading writer (an RSL Fellow: Colin Grant, Tanika Gupta, Irenosen Okojie, Pascale Petit and Roy Williams) and group sessions & tutorials for each Mentee, one at the beginning and one at the end of the mentoring scheme.

• At the end of the year, the Mentees work will be showcased at a prestigious literary venue

• The five RSL Fellows who will be mentoring in non-fiction, screenwriting, fiction, poetry and playwriting are: Colin Grant, Tanika Gupta, Irenosen Okojie, Pascale Petit and Roy Williams