Literature, philosophy, music and arts awarded in Monaco
The Literary Council of the Foundation executed by HRH the Princess of Hanover and composed of ten members of the French Academy, four members of the Goncourt Academy, four representatives of French-speaking writers, as well as three honorary members. met on Wednesday May 11 in the salons of the Ritz hotel in Paris, in order to draw up the list of authors in the running for the Literary Prize and the Discovery Exchange.
This has been the case since 1951 for the Literary Prize. That year, Colette was honorary president of the Literary Council, returned by HSH Prince Pierre, and the first writer to be awarded for all of his work was Julien Green. He was followed over the years by other great names in letters, Jean Giono, Henri Troyat, Françoise Mallet-Joris, Joseph Kessel, Eugène Ionesco, Marguerite Yourcenar, Antoine Blondin, Françoise Sagan, Léopold Sedar Senghor, Dominique Fernandez, Jean -Marie Rouart, Dominique Bona and Chantal Thomas among others. The Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to three laureates, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio, Patrick Modiano and Annie Ernaux.
This year, it was Vénus Khoury-Ghata who received the Literary Prize, endowed with €25,000, for all of her work, she won ahead of her four competitors, Michel del Castillo, Louis-Philippe Dalembert, Dominique Fortier and Marie-Helene Lafon. This Frenchwoman of Lebanese origin has during her long career as a woman of letters written about thirty novels and as many collections of poetry which have been crowned by numerous literal prizes and translated into fifteen languages.
The Discovery Grant was awarded to Thomas Louis for his novel “Les Chiens de faïence”, published by Editions de la Martinière. This prize, endowed with €12,000 by the Princess Grace Foundation, was created during the 50th anniversary of the Prince Pierre Foundation in 2001. It rewards a French-speaking author on the occasion of the publication of his first novel. Thomas Louis won against Sophie Delassein for “The Last Testament of Maurice Finkelstein” at Seuil; Ève-Marie Des Places for “La recitante” at the Cherche-Midi; François Noudelmann for “Les enfants de Cadillac” at Gallimard and Stéphanie de Saint Marc for “A dream life” at the Mercure de France.
The Coup de Cœur des Lycéens created in 2007, in collaboration with the Department of National Education, Youth and Sports, is endowed with €6,000 by the Princess Grace Foundation. He went to Marie Vingtras for her novel “Blizzard”, published by Editions de l’Olivier. The jury for this “Coup de coeur” is made up of second-year students from the Lycée Albert Ier, the Lycée technique et hôtelier and the Lycée FANB in Monaco. Marie Vingtras won ahead of Alex Daunel for “Les Indecis” at L’Archipel; Nicolas Diat for “What a tramp lacks” at Robert Laffont; Émilie Papatheodorou for “The American Dawn”, at Albin Michel and Julia Pialat for “When the city goes out” at JC Lattès.
Other disciplines are also highlighted.
The Young Music Lovers’ Coup de Coeur was awarded to York Höller, German composer and professor of composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne for his work “Viola Concerto” dating from 2016-2017, in his interpretation of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra. The Young Music Lovers’ Coup de Coeur, endowed with €6,000, dates from 2011, in collaboration with the Academy of Music, the Rainier III Theater and the Department of National Education, Youth and Sports and with the support of the Fondation Princess Grace. Each year, it rewards a recent musical work selected by a group of students from the Principality.
It was the American Christine Sun Kim who was awarded the International Prize for Contemporary Art for her work “The Star-Spangled Banner” produced in 2020. This prize, awarded since 1965, has been organized by the Prince Pierre Foundation since 1983 , it runs for three years and is endowed with €75,000.
For the first time, a three-year research grant endowed with €10,000 has been awarded to support an artist, an institution, a collective or an art historian, in their current or future work, in connection with the Mediterranean Basin. This year, she was nominated for DAAR – Decolonizing Architecture Art Research.
The anthropologist Philippe Descola is the winner of the Prize of the Principality for all of his philosophical work. He is also invited to give a conference the year following this award. The Principality’s prize is awarded by the Philosophical Meetings and the Prince Pierre of Monaco Foundation