Background

Ethnicity: Bernard's Jamaican-born grandmother, Gee Bernard, was the first black councillor in Croydon.

Jay Bernard was born in 1988 in Croydon, London.

Education

Bernard read English at Oxford University.

Career

Jay Bernard has been a programmer at BFI Flare, an archivist at Mayday Rooms and resident artist at Raven Row. He is a co-editor of Oxford Poetry, and his fiction, non-fiction, and art has been published in many national and international magazines and newspapers.

Bernard's first published work is Your Sign is Cuckoo, Girl, which came out 2008. His 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. His other published works include English Breakfast and Other Ubiquities. Graphic art and poetry by Bernard appears in the following collections: City State, The Salt Book of Younger Poets and Ten: The New Wave. Jay's first collection, Surge, was published by Chatto and Windus in June 2019. It is shortlisted for Forward Prize for Best First Collection 2019.

Jay’s short film Something Said, which was inspired by the 1981 New Cross house fire and archives held at the George Padmore Institute, where he was the first poet-in-residence, has screened in the UK and internationally, including Aesthetica and Leeds International Film Festival, Sheffield DocFest and CinemAfrica. His multimedia performance work Surge: Side A was performed at the Roundhouse, London, during The Last Word Festival 2017, and was produced by Speaking Volumes.

Achievements

• Jay Bernard is a prolific writer and poet. He was named a Foyle Young Poet of the year in 2005. Bernard won the 2017 Ted Hughes Award for new poetry for his multimedia performance work Surge: Side A.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Surge

    (Jay Bernard’s extraordinary debut is a fearlessly origina...)

    2019
  • The Red and Yellow Nothing

    (The Arthurian tale of Sir Morien is the story of a young ...)

    2016
  • Ten: The New Wave

    (It presents poetry from some of the most exciting new poe...)

    2014
  • Salt Book of Younger Poets

    (It showcases a new generation of British poets born since...)

    2011

Membership

Bernard is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Royal Society of Arts.

Personality

When speaking of himself Bernard uses the pronouns "they/ them".

Connections

grandmother:

Gee Bernard