Prix Goncourt

The Prix Goncourt (Le prix Goncourt or "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". Four other prizes are also awarded which are: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (first novel), prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle (short story), prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography).

History

Edmond de Goncourt, a successful author, critic, and publisher, bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the académie Goncourt. In honour of his brother and collaborator, Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, (1830-1870), the académie has awarded the prix Goncourt every December since 1903. The jury that determines the winner meets at the Drouant restaurant to make its decision. The award, though nominal, ensures the winner celebrity status and a boost in sales.

The award may only be given to an author once, and has never been given to an author twice except in one case. Romain Gary won it in 1956 for Les racines du ciel, and then won it again under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975 for La vie devant soi.

A few of the authors who have won the prize are: Marcel Proust, Jean Fayard, Simone de Beauvoir, Georges Duhamel, Alphonse de Châteaubriant, Antonine Maillet.

Some decisions for awarding the prize were controversial, the most famous case being the decision to award the prize in 1919 to Marcel Proust; this was met with indignation, since many in the public felt that the prize should have gone to Roland Dorgelès for Les Croix de bois, a novel about the First World War, for the following reasons: the prize was supposed to be awarded to promising young authors, whereas Proust was 48 (Proust was a beginning author, though, which is the only eligibility requirement for the prize, age being unimportant); and, this was immediately after the end of the war, where Dorgelès had fought, whereas Proust had been deemed unfit for service for medical reasons (he had asthma).

The 1932 prize was controversial for passing up Céline, and the voting process became the basis of the 1992 book Goncourt 32 by Eugène Saccomano.

In 1987, the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens was established, as a collaboration between the académie Goncourt, the French Ministry of Education, and Fnac, a book, music, and movie retailer.

The Prix Renaudot is announced at the same ceremony as the Prix Goncourt, it has become something of a second-place prize.

Prix Goncourt

Key

• "nta" = No [English] Translation Available, as of March 2009
• translation date is of first translation.

Other awards

In addition to the prix Goncourt for a novel, the academy awards 4 other awards for: first novel, short story, biography and poetry.

As of March 2009, the académie changed the award name by dropping "bourses" ("scholarship") from the title.^[4][5] The prefix "prix" can be included or not, such as "Prix Goncourt de la Poésie" (Goncourt prize for Poetry) or "Goncourt de la Poésie" (Goncourt of Poetry). For example: "Claude Vigée was awarded a Goncourt de la Poésie in 2008". Or, "Claude Vigée won the 2008 prix Goncourt de la Poésie".

The award titles are:

The winners are listed below.^[6]

Prix Goncourt de la Biographie

Awarded in partnership with the city of Nancy

• 1999 - Claude Pichois, Colette
• 2000 - Dominique Bona, Berthe Morisot
• 2001 - Philippe Besson, En l'absence des hommes
• 2002 - Jean-Paul Goujon, Une Vie Secrète ( 1870-1925 ); Mille lettres de Pierre Louÿs à Georges Louis (1890-1917)
• 2003 - Pierre Billard, Louis Malle
• 2004 - Claude Dufresne, Appelez-moi George Sand
• 2005 - Thibaut d'Anthonay, Jean Lorrain
• 2006 - Angie David, Dominique Aury
• 2007 - Patrice Locmant, Huysmans, le forçat de la vie
• 2008 - Jennifer Lesieur, Jack London
• 2009 - Viviane Forrester, Virginia Woolf

Prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle

Awarded in partnership with the city of Strasbourg

• 1999 - Elvire de Brissac, Les anges d'en bas
• 2000 - Catherine Paysan, Les Désarmés
• 2001 - Stéphane Denis, Elle a maigri pour le festival
• 2002 - Sébastien Lapaque, Mythologie Française
• 2003 - Philippe Claudel, Les petites mécaniques
• 2004 - Olivier Adam, Passer l'hiver
• 2005 - Georges-Olivier Chateaureynaud, Singe savant tabassé par deux clowns
• 2006 - Franz Bartelt, Le Bar des habitudes
• 2007 - Brigitte Giraud, L'Amour est très surestimé
• 2008 - Jean-Yves Masson, Ultimes vérités sur la mort du nageur

Prix Goncourt du Premier Roman

Awarded in partnership with the municipality of Paris

• 1990 - Hélène de Monferrand, Les amies d'Héloïse
• 1991 - Armande Gobry-Valle, Iblis ou la défroque du serpent
• 1992 - Nita Rousseau, Les iris bleus
• 1993 - Bernard Chambaz, L'arbre de vies
• 1994 - Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Vétérinaires
• 1995 - Florence Seyvos, Les apparitions
• 1996 - Yann Moix, Jubilations vers le ciel
• 1997 - Jean-Christophe Rufin, L'abyssin
• 1998 - Shan Sa, Porte de la paix céleste
• 1999 - Nicolas Michel, Un revenant
• 2000 - Benjamin Berton, Sauvageons
• 2001 - Salim Bachi, Le chien d'Ulysse
• 2002 - Soazig Aaron, Le non de Klara
• 2003 - Claire Delannoy, La guerre, l'Amérique
• 2004 - Françoise Dorner, La fille du rang derrière
• 2005 - Alain Jaubert, Val Paradis
• 2006 - Hédi Kaddour, Waltenberg
• 2007 - Frédéric Brun, Perla
• 2008 - Jakuta Alikavazovic, Corps volatils
• 2009 - Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, Une éducation libertine

Prix Goncourt de la Poésie

Established through the bequest of Adrien Bertrand (Prix Goncourt in 1914)

• 1985 - Claude Roy
• 1986 - Yves Bonnefoy
• 1987 -
• 1988 - Eugène Guillevic
• 1989 - Alain Bosquet
• 1990 - Charles Le Quintrec
• 1991 - Jean-Claude Renard
• 1992 - Georges-Emmanuel Clancier
• 1993 -
• 1994 -
• 1995 - Lionel Ray
• 1996 - André Velter
• 1997 - Maurice Chappaz
• 1998 - Lorand Gaspar
• 1999 - Jacques Réda
• 2000 - Liliane Wouters
• 2001 - Claude Esteban
• 2002 - Andrée Chedid
• 2003 - Philippe Jaccottet
• 2004 - Jacques Chessex
• 2005 - Charles Dobzynski
• 2006 - Alain Jouffroy
• 2007 - Marc Alyn
• 2008 - Claude Vigée

Bourse Goncourt Jeunesse

Awarded in partnership with the municipality of Fontvieille. Discontinued after 2007.

• 1999 - Claude Guillot et Fabienne Burckel, Le fantôme de Shanghai
• 2000 - Eric Battut, Rouge Matou
• 2002 - Fred Bernard et François Roca, Jeanne et le Mokélé et Jesus Betz
• 2003 - Yvan Pommaux, Avant la Télé
• 2004 - Jean Chalon et Martine Delerm, Un arbre dans la lune
• 2005 - Natalie Fortier, Lili Plume
• 2006 - Bernard du Boucheron et Nicole Claveloux, Un roi, une princesse et une pieuvre
• 2007 - Véronique Ovaldé et Joëlle Jolivet, La très petite Zébuline

Notes

See also

• Prix Renaudot - announced at the same ceremony as the Prix Goncourt, it has become something of a second-place prize.
• Prix Goncourt des Lycéens
• Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française
• List of French literary awards