Prix Goncourt · 2024 · Winner
Prix Goncourt
2024 Winner
Complete History
About the Prix Goncourt
The Prix Goncourt is France's most prestigious and celebrated literary prize, awarded annually since 1903 by the Académie Goncourt to the best and most imaginative prose work in French. The prize itself is famously symbolic — a check for ten euros — but the cultural impact and commercial boost it delivers to the winning novel are unparalleled in the French literary world, routinely propelling titles to hundreds of thousands of sales. The Académie comprises ten writers who meet monthly at the Drouant restaurant in Paris, where the final vote takes place each November.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The monetary prize is symbolic: a check for ten euros. However, the prize effectively guarantees massive commercial success, with winning novels often selling hundreds of thousands of copies.
- The prize is awarded by the Académie Goncourt, a literary society of ten writers who meet monthly at the Drouant restaurant in Paris.
- The winner is announced on the first Tuesday of November each year at the Drouant restaurant in Paris.
- No. The rules of the Académie Goncourt stipulate that a writer may only win the prize once in their lifetime.
- The prize is awarded for prose works written in French, including works by Francophone authors from outside France.
- The main Prix Goncourt is awarded to the best prose work of the year. The Prix Goncourt du premier roman is a separate prize specifically for debut novels, awarded by a jury of high school students.
- No. The prize is awarded exclusively to works originally written in French.
- The announcement is made at the Drouant restaurant in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, where the Académie Goncourt has held its monthly lunches since 1914.
- The prize is open to novels and other imaginative prose works (nouvelles, recueil). Poetry, essays, and non-fiction are generally excluded.
- Each autumn the Académie Goncourt announces a selection list, then a shortlist of four titles, and finally votes at the November luncheon — requiring an absolute majority, with the jury president casting a deciding vote in case of a tie.