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,[1] co-editor of Oxford Poetry,[2] and their fiction, non-fiction, and art has been published in many national and international magazines and newspapers.
Bernard's pamphlet The Red and Yellow Nothing was shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award in 2016. The collection tells of the story of Sir Morien, a black knight at Camelot.[4] The reviewer for The London Magazine 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."[5]
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.[6]
A Toast to the People (2021) Jay Bernard also performed at the Edinburgh International Festival, a spoken word event with Debris Stephenson.[22]
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.[27]
Further work and collaborationsedit
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.[28]
^Moore, Fiona (19 September 2016). "Review: The Red and Yellow Nothing by Jay Bernard". Sabotage Reviews.
^Kwek, Theophilus (1 September 2016), "The Red and Yellow Nothing by Jay Bernard" (review), The London Magazine.
^ ab"Jay Bernard wins the Ted Hughes Award for new work in poetry". The Poetry Society. 28 March 2018.
^Lea, Richard (28 March 2018). "Jay Bernard wins Ted Hughes Award". The Guardian.
^"Jay Bernard wins Ted Hughes new poetry award". BBC News. 28 March 2018.
^Onwuemezi, Natasha (29 March 2018), "Jay Bernard wins Ted Hughes Award", The Bookseller.
^"GPI's First Poet-in-Residence Jay Bernard Live at the Roundhouse" Archived 19 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, George Padmore Institute, 28 June 2017.
^ abcArmitstead, Claire (5 April 2018). "Interview: Speaking out: Ted Hughes winner Jay Bernard on exploring the New Cross fire in a one-off performance". The Guardian.
^"Fellow: Jay Bernard". The Royal Society of Literature.
^Flood, Alison (28 June 2018), "Royal Society of Literature admits 40 new fellows to address historical biases", The Guardian.
^Flood, Alison (17 October 2019). "TS Eliot prize unveils shortlist of 'fearless poets'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 10 November 2019.
^"Art on the Underground Project: 100". Art on the Underground.
^"Versatile artist's work reveals world of wonders". The University of Edinburgh. 28 June 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
^Lau, Carolyn (December 2014), "Songs of Experience: Jay Bernard's English Breakfast and Ami's The Desire to Sing After Sunset" (reviews), Cha: An Asian Literary Journal (Issue 26).
^"Hon Alderwoman Gee Bernard", Your Croydon, 9 December 2016.
^"Croydon pioneer Gee Bernard will be sorely missed", Inside Croydon, 10 December 2016.
^Sinclair, Leah (14 December 2016), "Croydon's First Black Councillor Passes Away", The Voice.
External linksedit
Jay Bernard official website
@Brrnrrd. Jay Bernard at Twitter.
Nisha Jones, "In conversation with Jay Bernard", Wasafiri.
"Jay Bernard – Breaking Ground interview" Archived 19 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Speaking Volumes, 29 April 2016.
Astrid Godfrey, "Jay Bernard: the Ted Hughes Prize Winner asking old questions and giving new answers", The Cambridge Student, 12 May 2018.
Jay Bernard in conversation with Lola Olufemi, Housmans Bookshop, 26 May 2020.