The Prix Femina[a] is a French literary prize awarded each year by an exclusively female jury. The prize, which was established in 1904, is awarded to French-language works written in prose or verse by male or female writers, and is announced on the first Wednesday of November each year. Four categories of prizes are awarded: Prix Femina, Prix Femina essai, Prix Femina étranger (foreign novels), and Prix Femina des lycéens. A Prix Femina spécial is occasionally awarded.

The Prix Femina committee in 1926

History

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The Prix Femina was created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse, which later merged into the magazine Femina, which ceased publication in 1954.[citation needed]

After the Great War, in 1919 Librairie Hachette proposed to the allied countries to create a similar prize. Great Britain accepted, and the first meeting of its jury was held on 20 June 1920. The prize was called the Prix Femina–Vie Heureuse, and it was awarded to English writers, from 1920 to 1939. Among the winners were E. M. Forster in 1925 and Virginia Woolf in 1928.[citation needed]

Similarly, in 1920 Lady Northcliffe, wife of Alfred Harmsworth, proposed to create a prize for French writers called the Northcliffe prize. Among the winners were Joseph Kessel in 1924, Julien Green in 1928, and Jean Giono in 1931. The last meeting of the jury for this prize was held on 10 April 1940, before the Nazis occupied France during World War II.[citation needed]

The archives of the English Committee are held by Cambridge University Library.[1]

Jury

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As of June 2021, the jury of the Femina consists of eleven female members:[2]

List of winners

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There are currently[when?] four categories: Prix Femina, Prix Femina essai, Prix Femina étranger (foreign novels), and Prix Femina des lycéens.

Prix Femina

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Year Title Author Notes
1904   La Conquête de Jérusalem Myriam Harry
1905   Jean-Christophe Romain Rolland
1906   Gemmes et moires André Corthis
1907   Princesses de science Colette Yver
1908   La Vie secrète Édouard Estaunié
1909   Le reste est silence Edmond Jaloux
1910   Marie-Claire Marguerite Audoux
1911   Le Roman du malade Louis de Robert
1912 Feuilles mortes Jacques Morel
1913   La Statue voilée Camille Marbo
1914 no winner
1915 no winner
1916 no winner
1917 L'Odyssée d'un transport torpillé René Milan
1918   Le Serviteur Henri Bachelin
1919   Les Croix de bois Roland Dorgelès
1920 Le Jardin des Dieux Edmond Gojon
1921   Cantegril Raymond Escholier
1922   Silbermann Jacques de Lacretelle
1923   Les Allongés Jeanne Galzy
1924 Le Bestiaire sentimental Charles Derennes
1925   Jeanne d'Arc Joseph Delteil
1926   Prodige du cœur Charles Silvestre
1927   Grand-Louis l'innocent Marie Le Franc
1928   Georgette Garou Dominique Dunois
1929   La Joie Georges Bernanos
1930 Cécile de la Folie Marc Chadourne
1931   Vol de nuit Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
1932   Le Pari Ramon Fernandez
1933   Claude Geneviève Fauconnier
1934 Le Bateau-refuge Robert Francis
1935   Bénédiction Claude Silve
1936   Sangs Louise Hervieu
1937 Campagne Raymonde Vincent
1938 Caroline ou le Départ pour les îles Félix de Chazournes
1939   La Rose de la mer Paul Vialar
1940 no winner
1941 no winner
1942 no winner
1943 no winner
1944 (Special award for its French Resistance work) Éditions de Minuit (publisher)
1945 Le Chemin du soleil Anne-Marie Monnet
1946 Le Temps de la longue patience Michel Robida
1947   Bonheur d'occasion Gabrielle Roy
1948 Les Hauteurs de la ville Emmanuel Roblès
1949 La Dame de cœur Maria Le Hardouin
1950 La Femme sans passé Serge Groussard
1951   Jabadao Anne de Tourville
1952   Le Souffle Dominique Rolin
1953 La Pierre angulaire Zoé Oldenbourg
1954 La Machine humaine Gabriel Veraldi
1955 Le pays où l'on arrive jamais André Dhôtel
1956 Les Adieux François-Régis Bastide
1957 Le Carrefour des solitudes Christian Mégret
1958   L'Empire céleste (Café Céleste) Françoise Mallet-Joris
1959 Au pied du mur Bernard Privat
1960 La Porte retombée Louise Bellocq
1961 Le Promontoire (The Promontory) Henri Thomas
1962 Le Sud Yves Berger
1963 La Nuit de Mougins Roger Vrigny
1964 Le Faussaire Jean Blanzat
1965 Quelqu'un (Someone) Robert Pinget
1966 Nature morte devant la fenêtre Irène Monesi
1967 Élise ou la Vraie Vie Claire Etcherelli
1968   L'Oeuvre au noir (The Abyss) Marguerite Yourcenar
1969 La Deuxième Mort de Ramón Mercader Jorge Semprún
1970 La Crève François Nourissier
1971   La Maison des Atlandes Angelo Rinaldi
1972   Ciné-roman Roger Grenier
1973 Juan Maldonne Michel Dard
1974   L'Imprécateur René-Victor Pilhes
1975 Le Maître d'heure Claude Faraggi
1976 Le Trajet Marie-Louise Haumont
1977   La neige brûle Régis Debray
1978 Un amour de père François Sonkin
1979 Le Guetteur d'ombre Pierre Moinot
1980   Joue-nous España Jocelyne François
1981 Le Grand Vizir de la nuit Catherine Hermary-Vieille
1982 Les Fous de Bassan (In the Shadow of the Wind) Anne Hébert
1983   Riche et légère Florence Delay
1984 Tous les soleils Bertrand Visage
1985   Sans la miséricorde du Christ Hector Bianciotti
1986 L'Enfer René Belletto
1987 L'Égal à Dieu (God's Equal) Alain Absire
1988   Le Zèbre (The Zebra) Alexandre Jardin
1989   Jours de colère Sylvie Germain
1990   Nous sommes éternels Pierrette Fleutiaux
1991   Déborah et les anges dissipés Paula Jacques
1992   Aden Anne-Marie Garat
1993   L'Oeil du silence Marc Lambron
1994 Port-Soudan Olivier Rolin
1995   La Classe de neige (Class Trip) Emmanuel Carrère
1996   Week-end de chasse à la mère Geneviève Brisac
1997 Amour noir Dominique Noguez
1998   Le Dit de Tianyi (The River Below) François Cheng
1999   Anchise Maryline Desbiolles
2000   Dans ces bras-là (In His Arms) Camille Laurens
2001   Rosie Carpe Marie Ndiaye
2002   Les adieux à la reine (Farewell, My Queen) Chantal Thomas
2003   Le complexe de Di (Mr. Muo's Travelling Couch) Dai Sijie
2004   Une vie française (Vie Francaise) Jean-Paul Dubois
2005 Asile de fous Régis Jauffret
2006   Lignes de faille (Fault Lines) Nancy Huston
2007   Baisers de cinéma Eric Fottorino
2008   Où on va, papa? Jean-Louis Fournier
2009   Personne Gwenaëlle Aubry
2010 La vie est brève et le désir sans fin Patrick Lapeyre
2011   Jayne Mansfield 1967 Simon Liberati
2012[3]   Peste & Choléra Patrick Deville
2013[4]   La Saison de l’ombre Léonora Miano
2014[5]   Bain de lune Yanick Lahens
2015[6]   La Cache Christophe Boltanski
2016[7]   Le Garçon Marcus Malte
2017[8]   La Serpe Philippe Jaenada
2018[9] Le Lambeau (Disturbance: Surviving Charlie Hebdo) Philippe Lançon
2019   Par les routes Sylvain Prudhomme
2020[10]   Nature humaine Serge Joncour
2021[11]   S'adapter Clara Dupont-Monod
2022[12]   Un chien à ma table Claudie Hunzinger
2023   Triste Tigre (Sad Tiger) Neige Sinno
2024   Le rêve du jaguar Miguel Bonnefoy

Prix Femina étranger

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The Prix Femina étranger is awarded annually to a foreign-language literary work translated into French.

Prix Femina essai

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The Prix Femina essai, established in 1999, is awarded to an essay. It replaced the Prix Hélène Vacaresco.[13]

Prix Femina spécial

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The has been awarded to several writers, for the entirety of their work.

In 2017, anthropologist and essayist Françoise Héritier was awarded a Prix Femina spécial.[14]

Pierre Guyotat was awarded the prize in 2018.[15][16][17]

In 2019, the Prix Femina spécial was awarded to Irish novelist Edna O'Brien, following the publication of her last novel, Girl, which had been shortlisted for the Prix Femina étranger. The prize was awarded in honour of her whole body of work, and it was the first time a non-French author had won it.[17][18]

Prix Femina des lycéens

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Year Title Author
2016   Tropique de la violence Nathacha Appanah
2017   Ma reine Jean-Baptiste Andrea
2018   Je voudrais que la nuit me prenne Isabelle Desesquelles
2019   La Chaleur Victor Jestin
2020   Ce qu'il faut de nuit Laurent Petitmangin
2021[19]   Le rire des déesses Ananda Devi
2022 Tenir sa langue Polina Panassenko
2023 Ce que je sais de toi Éric Chacour[20]

Femina–Vie Heureuse

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The following awards were made during the lifetime of the award.[1]

Year Title Author
1920 William an Englishman Cicely Hamilton
1921 The Splendid Fairing Constance Holme
1922 Dangerous Ages Rose Macaulay
1923 Gruach Gordon Bottomley
1924 Roman Pictures Percy Lubbock
1925 A Passage to India E. M. Forster
1926 Precious Bane Mary Webb
1927 Adam's Breed Radclyffe Hall
1928 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf
1929 Gallion's Reach H. M. Tomlinson
1930 Portrait in a Mirror Charles Morgan
1931 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes
1932 Tobit Transplanted Stella Benson
1933 Small Town Bradda Field
1934 Cold Comfort Farm Stella Gibbons
1935 Harriet Elizabeth Jenkins
1936 The Root and the Flower L. H. Myers
1937 Faith, Hope, no Charity Margaret Lane
1938 The Porch Richard Church
1939 Count Belisarius Robert Graves

See also

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ The Prix Femina is sometimes spelt Prix Fémina, but it is officially spelt without an accent, even in French.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Femina Vie Heureuse Prize: English Committee: Minutes and papers". The National Archives.
  2. ^ "Trois romancières rejoignent le jury du Prix Femina". LEFIGARO (in French). 2 June 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
  3. ^ "US writer Julie Otsuka wins Femina foreign novel prize". France24. 6 November 2012. Retrieved 6 November 2012.
  4. ^ "US author wins top French literary prize". France24. 6 November 2013. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  5. ^ "L'Haïtienne Yanick Lahens, prix Femina pour le roman "Bain de Lune"". France24. 3 November 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Christophe Boltanski, Kerry Hudson et Emmanuelle Loyer lauréats du Femina 2015". livreshebdo.fr. 11 November 2015. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  7. ^ "Le Femina 2016 pour Marcus Malte, Rabih Alameddine et Ghislaine Dunant". livreshebdo.fr. 25 October 2016. Retrieved 26 October 2016.
  8. ^ "Le Femina couronne "le justicier" Philippe Jaenada pour "La serpe"". Yahoo! News. 8 November 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
  9. ^ Jean Birnbaum (5 November 2018). "Le prix Femina pour Philippe Lançon et son livre " Le Lambeau "". Le Monde. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  10. ^ "Serge Joncour remporte le Femina 2020". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  11. ^ "Le prix Femina 2021 du roman français décerné à Clara Dupont-Monod". Le Monde (in French). 25 October 2021. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
  12. ^ Dupuy, Éric (7 November 2022). "Claudie Hunzinger, Rachel Cusk et Annette Wieviorka primées au Femina 2022". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 8 November 2022.
  13. ^ "Prix Femina" (in French). La République des Lettres republique-des-lettres.fr. 3 February 2011. ISSN 1952-4307. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  14. ^ Thomas, Vincy (9 November 2017). "Le Femina accorde un Prix spécial à Françoise Héritier". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  15. ^ Faerber, Johan (6 November 2018). "Pierre Guyotat : Idiotie, Prix Femina spécial 2018 et Prix Médicis 2018". DIACRITIK (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  16. ^ "Prix Femina 2018 : Elisabeth de Fontenay et Pierre Guyotat récompensés". hachette.fr (in French). 5 November 2018. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Edna O'Brien wins the Prix Femina Special". Peters Fraser and Dunlop (PFD) Literary Agents. 5 November 2019. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  18. ^ Contreras, Isabel (5 November 2019). "Le Femina 2019 pour Sylvain Prudhomme, Manuel Vilas, Edna O'Brien et Emmanuelle Lambert". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  19. ^ Gabinari, Pauline (6 December 2021). "Ananda Devi, lauréate du Femina des lycéens 2021". Livres Hebdo (in French). Retrieved 15 January 2022.
  20. ^ Laila Maalouf, "Éric Chacour remporte le Femina des lycéens". La Presse, November 28, 2023.
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