Prix Femina

The Prix Femina committee in 1926

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.

History

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

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

• Josyane Savigneau (president)
• Evelyne Bloch-Dano
• Claire Gallois
• Anne-Marie Garat
• Paula Jacques
• Christine Jordis
• Mona Ozouf
• Danièle Sallenave
• Nathalie Azoulai
• Scholastique Mukasonga
• Patricia Reznikov

List of winners

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

Prix Femina

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

Main article: Prix Femina étranger

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

Prix Femina essai

Main article: Prix Femina essai

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

Prix Femina spécial

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

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

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

• List of literary awards

Footnotes

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

References

1. "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. "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.

External links

• Media related to Prix Femina at Wikimedia Commons
• Prix Femina, at Prix Litteraires website
• National archive Femina Vie Heureuse Prize: English Committee, an archive of documents covering 1919–1940