The Goncourt price which was to be awarded on November 10 has been postponed indefinitely out of “solidarity” with bookstores, forced to close due to the Covid-19 epidemic, announced this Thursday, October 29 to AFP the general delegate of the Academy Goncourt Françoise Rossinot.
“The Goncourt Prize is awarded at an indefinite date since on November 10 the bookstores will not be open. For academics there is no question of handing it over so that it benefits other sales platforms ”, she wrote in a short message on Thursday.
By this gesture, the academicians of Goncourt “Wish to express their solidarity with the booksellers”, continues the text.
Closed bookstores
Jurors had threatened to postpone this award if bookstores were not open by November 10. A closure confirmed Thursday evening by the Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot during the government press conference detailing the containment measures.
“Bookstores are not currently part of the open shops. But they will be able, like the record stores besides, to organize activities of delivery and pick-up of orders, that is to say the “click and collect” “, she stressed.
And as with other types of signs, “We will see in 15 days with regard to the health situation if a classic opening becomes possible again”, continued the minister.
A novelist and three novelists remain in the running for the Goncourt Prize : Djaïli Amadou Amal (“Les Impatientes”), Hervé Le Tellier (“The Anomaly”), Maël Renouard (“The Historiographer of the Kingdom”) and Camille de Toledo, (“Thésée, sa vie nouvelle”).
The advanced Femina award
The French Academy, which was to award its Grand Prix du roman 2020 Thursday afternoon, just before the entry into force of the containment measures, has finally given up. “The proclamation of the Grand Prix du roman, scheduled for this afternoon, is canceled”, said the Academy in a press release at midday, without giving details on the date of a possible new announcement.
Conversely, the Femina price advanced the announcement of its price to Monday late morning, initially scheduled for Tuesday. The jury invoked, in a press release, “The conviction that literary prizes help support cultural life, booksellers, publishers, readers and authors seriously affected by the containment measures”.
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