Eric Chacour won Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie 2024 in Paris, France on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Khalid Lyamlahy was given a special mention.
Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie (English: Five Continents Prize of the Francophonie) was established by the International Organization of the Francophonie in 2001. It is aimed at highlighting literary talents reflecting the expression of cultural and editorial diversity in the French language on five continents and promoting them on the international scene. Some previous winners have been Alain Mabanckou, Wilfried N’Sondé, Yamen Manaï, Fawzia Zouari, and Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse.
As is tradition, the representatives of the Prix des Cinq Continents Prize Reading Committees are The Passa Porta Association (Wallonia-Brussels Federation), the Writers’ Association of Senegal (Senegal), the Young French Writer’s Prize Association (France), the Literary Camp Félix Association (Canada), the Elongo Culture Association (Congo) and the Vietnam Committee (Vietnam). The committees were given 226 entries to select from and on December 7 met and decided that ten finalists made it to the next round on December 13.
The jury is chaired by Faouzia Zouari (representative of the Parliament of French-speaking women writers) alongside Paula Jacques, Lise Bissonnette, Vénus Khoury-Ghata, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Lyonel Trouillot, Liliana Lazar, Abdourahman Waberi, Michel Choueiri, Gaëtan Maran, Monique Proulx and, Yahia Belaski. They unveiled the following at a closing ceremony hosted at the Musé e de l’Homme in Paris;
Winner
- Ce que je sais de toi, Eric Chacour, (Canada-Québec – Egypte), éditions Alto (Canada-Québec)
Jury comments: “The plot of this first novel takes current paths in the world explored by our prize. The broken tradition, an unacceptable love, the exile, the tension of return, the impossible resolution between lives torn apart in time, space, hopes. In a literary period of cries, of outbursts, of languages crazy by the revelation of misfortunes, an unpredictable writer presents himself here, who polishes each sentence so that it knows how to say what he observes down to the smallest of gestures, of looks, movements that carry life choices. A classicism that describes the finesse of feelings and the present time with delicacy. A story of love, memory and devastation.”
Born in Montreal to Egyptian parents, Eric Chacour shared his life between France and Quebec. A graduate in applied economics and international relations, he now works in the financial sector. Ce que je sais de toi (English: What I Know About You) is his first novel.
Special mention
- Evocation d’un mémorial à Venise, Khalid Lyamlahy (Maroc), éditions Présence africaine (France)
Jury comments, “Investigation and introspection of the narrator based on the tragic destiny of an excluded person in the city of tourism, carnival, love… Poetic and captivating writing, powerful testimony on painful migration and the undignified fate of the displaced with clarity of vision and deep questions. The text goes beyond speculation and touches the limits of humanity.”
Khalid Lyamlahy is a Moroccan academic, writer and literary critic living in the United States. Before Evocation d’un mémorial à Venise (English: Evocation of a Memorial in Venice), he published A Foreign Novel in 2017 with Présence Africaine.
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