Jay Bernard (born 1988), FRSL, is a British writer, artist, film programmer, and activist from London, UK. Bernard has been a programmer at BFI Flare since 2014, co-editor of ''

Oxford Poetry ''Oxford Poetry'' is a literary magazine based in Oxford, England. It is currently edited by Luke Allan. The magazine is published by Partus Press. Founded in 1910 by Basil Blackwell, its editors have included Dorothy L. Sayers, Aldous Huxley ...

'', and their fiction, non-fiction, and art has been published in many national and international magazines and newspapers. Bernard's work engages with LGBT identities and dialogues. Bernard believes that celebrations such as

LGBT History Month LGBT History Month is an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, and the history of the gay rights and related civil rights movements. It was founded in 1994 by Missouri high-school history teacher Rodn ...

are positive and beneficial, but there needs to be vigilance against those that use it for their own agendas.

Accolades

Bernard was named a Foyle Young Poet of the year in 2005. Bernard's pamphlet ''The Red and Yellow Nothing'' was shortlisted for the

Ted Hughes Award The Ted Hughes Award is an annual prize given to a living UK poet for new work in poetry. It is awarded each spring in recognition of a work from the previous year. Background The award was established in 2009 with the permission of Carol Hughes i ...

in 2016. The collection tells of the story of Sir Morien, a black knight at

Camelot Camelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and, since the Lancelot-Grail cycle, eventually came to be described as th ...

. The reviewer for ''

The London Magazine ''The London Magazine'' is the title of six different publications that have appeared in succession since 1732. All six have focused on the arts, literature and miscellaneous topics. 1732–1785 ''The London Magazine, or, Gentleman's Monthly I ...

'' wrote: "Jay Bernard has created a rare and beautiful thing. Part contemporary verse drama, part mythic retelling....Employing metrical ballads and concrete poems with equal vigour, Bernard takes us on a visual and allusive journey to test the imagination, thus putting the poet’s resources of sight and sound to full use. ...reading ''The Red and Yellow Nothing'' brings continuous surprise." Bernard won the 2017 Ted Hughes Award for new poetry for their multimedia performance work ''Surge: Side A'', that includes the film ''Something Said'', inspired by the 1981 New Cross house fire and archives held at the

George Padmore Institute The George Padmore Institute (GPI), founded in 1991 in Stroud Green Road, North London, by John La Rose (1927–2006) and a group of political and cultural activists connected to New Beacon Books,A Brief History of Seven Killings ''A Brief History of Seven Killings'' is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published in 2014 by Riverhead Books. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in Jamaica in 1976 and ...

'' by Marlon James, and ''Twilight City'', a film produced by Reece Auguiste for the

Black Audio Film Collective The Black Audio Film Collective (BAFC), founded in 1982 and active until 1998, comprised seven Black British and diaspora multimedia artists and film makers: John Akomfrah, Lina Gopaul, Avril Johnson, Reece Auguiste, Trevor Mathison, Edward Geo ...

in 1989, also provided inspiration for the work. Bernard was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2018. Bernard's poetry collection, ''Surge'', published by Chatto & Windus, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot prize in 2019, for the 2019

Costa Poetry Award The Costa Book Awards were a set of annual literary awards recognising English-language books by writers based in UK and Ireland. Originally named the Whitbread Book Awards from 1971 to 2005 after its first sponsor, the Whitbread company, then ...

, for the 2020

Dylan Thomas Prize The Dylan Thomas Prize is a leading prize for young writers presented annually. The prize, named in honour of the Welsh writer and poet Dylan Thomas, brings international prestige and a remuneration of £30,000 (~$46,000). It is open to published ...

, and the 2020 RSL

Ondaatje Prize The Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize is an annual literary award given by the Royal Society of Literature. The £10,000 award is for a work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry that evokes the "spirit of a place", and is written by someon ...

. It has won the 2020

Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award The Sunday Times / University of Warwick Young Writer of the Year award is a literary prize awarded to a British author under the age of 35 for a published work of fiction, non-fiction or poetry. It is administered by the Society of Authors and ha ...

Work

Pamphlets and single-author collections

* ''Your Sign is Cuckoo, Girl'' (Tall Lighthouse, 2008, ) * ''English Breakfast'' (Math Paper Press, 2013) * ''The Red and Yellow Nothing'' (Ink, Sweat and Tears Press, 2016, ), pamphlet, shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2016. * ''Other Ubiquities'' (2017) *''Surge'' (Chatto, 2019, ).

Performances

''Surge: Side A'' (2017), a multimedia performance piece that won the Ted Hughes Award for new poetry. The work was performed at the Roundhouse, London, during The Last Word Festival 2017, and was produced by Speaking Volumes. ''A Toast to the People'' (2021) Jay Bernard also performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, a spoken word event with Debris Stephenson.

Films

* ''Something Said,'' screened at Encounters Festival (2017), CinemAfrica (2018), BFI Flare (2018).

Inclusion in anthologies and collections

Graphic art and poetry by Bernard appears in the following collections: * ''City State'' (2009) * "Black Britain: Beyond Definition", ''

Wasafiri ''Wasafiri'' is a quarterly British literary magazine covering international contemporary writing. Founded in 1984, the magazine derives its name from a Swahili word meaning "travellers" that is etymologically linked with the Arabic word " safa ...

'', Issue 64, Winter 2010. * ''The Salt Book of Younger Poets'' (

Salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

2011) * ''Ten: The New Wave'' ( Bloodaxe 2014)

Residencies

* 2010: artist in residence at StAnza Poetry Festival. * 2012: fellow at the National University of Singapore, and curated a graphic arts and poetry exhibition ''I SEE YOU'' at The Arts House. * 2013: CityRead resident at the

London Metropolitan Archives The London Metropolitan Archives (LMA) is the principal local government archive repository for the Greater London area, including the City of London: it is the largest county record office in the United Kingdom. It was established under its pr ...

. * 2015: commissioned with artist Yemisi Blake as part of Transport for London’s Year of the Bus celebrations. Their work ''100'', which featured one hundred one-line poems, was displayed at North Greenwich Bus Station between January and September 2015.

Further work and collaborations

* 2022: ''After Work'', made in collaboration with Céline Condorelli and Ben Rivers focuses on the building of a children’s playground, which Condorelli was commissioned to create in South London.

Personal life

Bernard was born and grew up in Croydon, London, and read English at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. Bernard uses the pronouns "they/ them". Their

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

n-born grandmother, Gee Bernard (1934–2016), was the first black councillor in Croydon and the first black member of the

Inner London Education Authority The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was an ad hoc local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. The authority was reconstituted as a directly elected body corp ...

(ILEA).Sinclair, Leah (14 December 2016)
"Croydon's First Black Councillor Passes Away"
''

The Voice The Voice may refer to: Fictional entities * The Voice or Presence, a fictional representation of God in DC Comics * The Voice (''Dune''), a fictional ability in the ''Dune'' universe * The Voice, a character in the American TV series ''Cleo ...

''.

References

External links

Jay Bernard
official website
@Brrnrrd
Jay Bernard at Twitter. * Nisha Jones
"In conversation with Jay Bernard"
''Wasafiri''.
"Jay Bernard – Breaking Ground interview"
Speaking Volumes, 29 April 2016. * Astrid Godfrey

''

The Cambridge Student ''The Cambridge Student'', commonly known as TCS, is one of Cambridge University's student newspapers ('' Varsity'' and ''The Tab'' are the others). The now online only newspaper is owned and published by the Cambridge University Students' Unio ...

'', 12 May 2018. * Jay Bernar
in conversation with Lola Olufemi
Housmans Bookshop, 26 May 2020. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bernard, Jay Living people 1988 births 21st-century British poets Black British writers English people of Jamaican descent Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature LGBT Black British people British LGBT poets Non-binary writers Queer poets Writers from London