Everything you need to know about Bernardine Evaristo, the first black woman to win the Booker

British author Bernardine Evaristo has won this year's Booker Prize for her novel Girl, Woman, Other.

It's a big moment in the literary world as it makes Evaristo the first black woman to receive the prize. However, the Booker has come under particular attention this year as the judges have flouted the rules by naming two winners instead of one.

Evaristo shares this year's prize with Margaret Atwood for her novel The Testaments. However, this by no means diminishes Evaristo's achievement – here's everything you need to know about the groundbreaking writer.

What's her background?

Born in south-east London, Evaristo is of English-Nigerian heritage. She writes novels and poetry, teaches creative writing and publishes literary criticism.

As well as being an author, Evaristo is also an activist and consistently advocates for greater diversity and inclusion in the literary world. For example, she founded the Brunel University African Poetry Prize to help give African voices a more global platform, and has also worked on a report to find out why black and Asian poets weren't getting published in the UK.

What did she win for?

Girl, Woman, Other is an anthology book about the varied experiences of black British womxn. Each chapter comes from the perspective of a different character telling their story, whether it's Amma the lesbian playwright, her daughter Jazz, or the non-binary Megan. The stories aren't separate but beautifully interweave with each other, showing just how different the black British womxn's experience is.

Of her win, Evariste said: "It's a bittersweet experience. In one sense, it's great to be the first, but I shouldn't be the first. I think this prize has moved with the times. Our culture has moved somewhat in the past few years.

"The fact that a book by a black British woman, writing about black British women...the fact that I won the prize for this, won this prize with the book, I think is an incredible thing to happen.

"I don't think it would have happened five years ago or ten years ago. I think it's about how the prize is won and who gets to be the judges. It just has not gone to black people, hardly at all. Hopefully it will inspire people. Hopefully I will be a role model, especially to writers of colour."

What other books has she written?

Before writing Girl, Woman, Other, Evaristo published seven novels, including Mr Loverman in 2014 and Lara in 2009.

Much of her work explores the experiences of the black diaspora. Take Mr Loverman, which shines a light on the older Caribbean community in London through the eyes of a 74-year-old closeted gay Antiguan-British man.

Not all of Evaristo's novels are rooted in real-life experiences – 2010's Blonde Roots imagines Africans as slavemasters and Europeans as slaves. 2005's Soul Tourists also draws upon the imaginary, as a black couple go on a car journey through Europe to the Middle East, meeting historical ghosts of colour on the way.

Evaristo has also published poetry collections, and many of her novels mix both prose and verse. On her website, Evaristo says: "As a writer of fictions I like to mix things up temporally, spatially and stylistically – to cross the borders of genre, race, culture, gender, history and sexuality, most recently in Girl, Woman, Other and Mr Loverman. My Afro-diasporic interests have led me to writing books that connect ancient and modern history with our contemporary society."