December 6, 2009
(Morocco/France)- Moroccan poet Abdellatif Laabi won France's prestigious Goncourt Prize for Poetry, said, last Tuesday, the French Goncourt Academy. Abdellatif Laâbi was awarded this literary honor for "his life achievements," the Academy said in a statement. The prize will be officially given on January 12, 2010. Born in 1942, Laabi is a poet, novelist, playwright and translator. This prolific writer produced a number of literary works, mainly "Tribulations d'un rêveur attitré" (2008), "Mon cher double" (2007), "Oeuvre poétique I" (2006), "Ecris la vie" (2005), "Les Fruits du corps" (2003), "L'automne promet" (2003), "Poèmes périssables" (2000), "Le Spleen de Casablanca" (1996), "L'Etreinte du monde" (1993) and "Le soleil se meurt" (1992). The Goncourt Jury included, Tahar Benjelloun (another Goncourt recipient), Françoise Chandernagor, Patrick Rambaud, Michel Tournier, Edmonde Charles-Roux, Robert Sabatier, Jorge Semprun, Françoise Mallet-Joris, Bernard Pivot and Didier Decoin.XXX
XXXThe Prix Goncourt (Le prix Goncourt or "The Goncourt Prize") is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". Four other prizes are also awarded which are: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman (first novel), prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle (short story), prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography). Edmond de Goncourt, a successful author, critic, and publisher, bequeathed his entire estate for the foundation and maintenance of the académie Goncourt. In honor of his brother and collaborator, Jules Alfred Huot de Goncourt, (1830-1870), the académie has awarded the prix Goncourt every December since 1903. The jury that determines the winner meets at the Drouant restaurant in Paris to make its decision. The award, though nominal, ensures the winner celebrity status and a boost in sales.
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XXXThe award may only be given to an author once, and has never been given to an author twice except in one case. Romain Gary won it in 1956 for Les racines du ciel, and then won it again under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975 for La vie devant soi. A few of the authors who have won the prize are: Marcel Proust, Jean Fayard, Simone de Beauvoir, Georges Duhamel, Alphonse de Châteaubriant, Antonine Maillet. In 1987, the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens (High School Student Prize) was established, as a collaboration between the académie Goncourt, the French Ministry of Education, and Fnac, a book, music, and movie retailer. The Prix Renaudot is announced at the same ceremony as the Prix Goncourt, it has become something of a second-place prize. (from apanews.net and wikipedia.org)
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