Louis-Philippe Dalembert and Eve Guerra were declared winners of Académie Goncourt 2024 Spring Literary prizes on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society), usually called the Académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy), is a French literary organisation based in Paris founded by the French writer and publisher Edmond de Goncourt in 1900. The organisation recently had an election of their new president Philippe Claudel, and they presented the four winners of the Goncourt prizes for spring 2024 on Tuesday, May 14. These prizes, awarded in partnership with the municipality of Paris at the beginning of spring, are for First novel, short story, biography, and poetry.
The awards this time round had two people of African descent in the running;
Prix Goncourt de la Poesie Robert Sabatier
Prix Goncourt de la Poesie (English: Goncourt Prize for poetry) which celebrates a poet’s entire career work was established through the bequest of Adrien Bertrand in 1914. In 1985, it was officially renamed Prix Goncourt de la Poésie Robert Sabatier, after the poet. In that period, on Moroccan poet, novelist, journalist, playwright, translator, and political activist Abdellatif Laabi has won it from the continent.
The winner of this year’s award is Haitian writer Louis-Philippe Dalembert with the citation of the award stating, “Through his pen, the author offers lyrical works imbued with strength and depth. His poems, marked by a humanism linked to exile, invite us to explore both Caribbean stories anchored in his Haitian origins, and the universal themes of the traveller on earth.”
Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman
Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (English: Goncourt Prize for the first novel) is a literary prize awarded every year since 2009 alongside the Goncourt Prize by the Académie Goncourt. Some of the previous winners have been Salim Bachi (Algeria), Hédi Kaddour (Tunisia), and Kamel Daoud (Algeria).
The winner of the award this year is Eve Guerra for her debut Rapatriement published by Grasset. Rapatriement follows Annabella Morelli whose family originates from Congo-Brazzaville and is based in Vieux Lyon, France.
Eve Guerra said on the win, “I would like to thank all the members of the Academy Goncourt for such beautiful support given to Repatriement. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my very young publisher, Madeleine Thompson, who wins with this distinction her first Goncourt of the first novel as publisher. Thank you for being there and accompanying me. She wasn’t afraid to take an informed text and accompany it on the path of rewriting. I will always be grateful to Him for that. This is the publisher I hope for all writers. Thanks to Myriam Salama and Yasmine Ouannane, and the whole Grasset team, who carried this text and shared it as much as possible. Finally, I thank my family, friends, and colleagues for their support.”
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