Musicians, writers and philosophers in the spotlight in Monaco
HRH the Princess of Hanover presented the literary prize of the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation to Annie Ernaux for all of her work. The members of the literary committee chaired by the princess preferred it to Claude Arnaud, Benoît Duteurtre and Pierre Michon. Annie Ernaux took the stage, “astonished and upset”, she expressed her joy. She also spoke of Grace Kelly’s marriage to Prince Rainier III on April 18, 1956, which dazzled the teenager of sixteen and that she was then with her parents in Normandy. Endowed with 25,000 €, the literary prize was created in 1951.
The Discovery Grant dates from 2001, the 50th anniversary of the Literary Prize. Endowed with € 12,000 by the Princess Grace Foundation, it rewards a French-speaking author on the occasion of the publication of his first work of fiction. She was paid tribute to the Franco-Moroccan Abigail Assor for “As rich as the king” published last January by Gallimard. Throughout these 207 pages, the novelist tells a love story between high school students belonging to different social classes in Casablanca but she also paints a picture of the violence of society in Morocco in the 1990s.
The Coup de lycéens rewarded the Burkinabé Roukiata Ouedraogo for her first novel “Du sous miel les galettes” published in September 2020 by Slatkine t Cie. Created in 2007, this prize is awarded by a jury of high school students from establishments in the Principality; this year it was made up of second year students from Lycée Albert Ier, Lycée Technique et Hôtelier and Lycée FANB. They were considered Roman. This prize is endowed by the Princess Grace Foundation with 6,000 €. It is also a real educational project in collaboration with the Department of National Education, Youth and Sports, which aims to make students aware of the world of publishing and contemporary literature. “Honey under the pancakes” is largely autobiographical Roukiata Ouedraogo, also an actress and radio columnist, pays homage to her mother who gave her the courage to fight.
Charlotte Casiraghi, daughter of Princess Caroline presented the Principality Prize to Julia Kristeva, philologist, psychoanalyst, writer, psychoanalyst, professor emeritus at the University of Paris VII – Diderot, full member of the Psychoanalytic Society of Paris and honorary doctorate numerous universities, Born in Bulgaria, she has worked in France since 1966 and is the author of some thirty works translated into many languages. This prize, created in 2017, is awarded by the Prince Pierre Foundation and the Rencontres philosophiques de Monaco to an author for all of his philosophical work.
The evening ended with the traditional photo that brought the winners together on the stage.