Nathacha Appanah and Natasha Brown are on the Prix Médicis 2025 Deuxièmes Sélections announced in Paris, France, on Thursday, October 16, 2025.
In 1958, French citizens Gala Barbisan and Jean-Pierre Giraudoux founded Prix Médicis to recognise a novel, a story, a collection of short stories by an author who does not yet have notoriety corresponding to their talent. Since 1970, a foreign Prix Médicis, and since 1985, a Médicis essay prize, have been awarded on the same day. Some of the previous winners have been Dany Laferrière, Chloé Delaume, Orhan Pamuk, André Brink, and Emmanuèle Bernheim. Diaty Diallo and Leila Mottley were finalists in 2022, while Abdellah Taïa and Amira Ghenim made the second selection in 2024.
The 2025 jury, chaired by Pascale Roze, is composed of Marianne Alphant, Michel Braudeau, Marie Darrieussecq, Dominique Fernandez, Anne F. Garréta, Patrick Grainville, Andreï Makine, and Alain Veinstein. They announced the first selection on September 12, before they made the second selection public on October 16. The writers of African descent at this stage are;
Novels in French
- La Nuit au cœur, Nathacha Appanah (Gallimard)
Foreign novels
- Les Universalistes, Natasha Brown, translated from English by Marguerite Capelle (Grasset)
The winners will be announced at the La Méditerranée restaurant in Paris on Wednesday, November 5, 2025.
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