Bernardine Evaristo stays winning. Just yesterday, she made history as the first female writer of color to top the UK fiction paperback chart.

Since snagging the coveted Booker Prize in 2019, her acclaimed novel Girl, Woman, Other has won tons of awards and appeared on numerous “best of” lists and shortlists. Recently, Girl, Woman, Other climbed to the No.1 spot on the UK fiction paperback chart, a record-setting achievement seeing that Evaristo is the first woman of color to earn this honor.

Evaristo wrote on Twitter: “I‘ve just heard that I am the FIRST female writer of colour to top the UK fiction paperback chart. The only other writer of colour was my fellow Bookeree @MarlonJames in 2015. Astonishing. (Writer of colour, mind, not just black.)”

The No.1 spot for non-fiction was filled by fellow Black British author Reni Eddo-Lodge for Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race.

This come right after black lives matter protests and after black British authors called out the “hostile environment” of the UK publishing industry.

In their report, The Guardian quotes Eddo-Logde saying that it is ‘“a horrible indictment of the publishing industry” that it had taken so long for a black British author to be No 1.’

It is also an achievement for which both authors should be celebrated. As Evaristo notes in another tweet, topping the UK paperback fiction bestseller list is “a personal and community history-making.

https://twitter.com/BernardineEvari/status/1270596476415156225

Congrats to Evaristo!