Releasing more than 500 new titles in a scant three-month season, say critics, is an overwhelming burden on French booksellers and consumers.
Rights Sales for the Winner of the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens: ‘So Good’
Award-winning author David Diop is the client of a new one-woman literary agency in France. Looking at her rights sales, you can understand the agency’s name: So Far So Good.
2017 Prix Goncourt Shortlist Announced in Frankfurt
With France as Guest of Honor at the Fair, the shortlist of the Prix Goncourt is announced at the Frankfurt Book Fair for the first time.
Near Miss for Algeria’s Kamel Daoud for Goncourt
Unexpectedly, Algerian writer Kamel Daoud’s powerful novel, an homage to Camus, nearly took France’s top literary prize.
Critics Attack France’s Annual Rentrée Littéraire as “Collective Suicide”
France’s annual orgy of new fiction, the rentrée littéraire, or literary season, is underway, but some in publishing think it’s doing more harm than good.
As Maalouf Joins Académie Française, Label “Francophone” Questioned
By Olivia Snaije PARIS: Amin Maalouf, the Franco-Lebanese author, perhaps best known for his Goncourt Prize-winning book The Rock of Tanios was admitted to the venerable Académie Française, or French Academy, in June. Maalouf is the second writer of Arab origin to accede to the Academy — in 2005 Algerian-born writer Assia Djebar was voted in. Founded in 1635, the Académie Française …
Prix Goncourt 2011 Debut Novel Winner Announced
Michel Rostain has won the 2011 Goncourt Debut Novel Prize for 2011 for his novel, The Son (Le Fils), published by Oh! Editions in Paris. The prize was announced yesterday, 1 February. Just two weeks after publication, The Son has already achieved bestseller status in France, according to Andrea Field, Foreign Rights Manager at Oh! Editions. Novels shortlisted for the …
A Very French Melancholy: Olivier Adam, the Man Who Lost the Goncourt
• The latest in Lewis Manalo’s series looking at underappreciated writers worthy of wider translation considers the work of French writer Olivier Adam, who was shortlisted for this year’s Prix Goncourt. • Prior articles in the series cover Louis Cha (China), Rodrigo Fresan (Argentina), Agnar Mykle (Norway), and Stephen Vizinczey (Hungary). By Lewis Manalo Anyone who gives half an ear …
In the Digital Age, Is Plagiarism an Acceptable Literary Technique?
The digital age is rife with writers whose sole technique appears to be cut, paste, modify. Edward Nawotka asks, has this become the new norm?