The Prix du Premier Roman (First Novel Prize) is a French literary prize awarded to an unpublished novelist between the ages of 18 and 30. The monetary reward is 3,000 Euros.
The prize was first awarded in 1977. Starting with 1998 a separate award is given to the best first novel by a foreign writer. The jury is made out of literary critics and the current president of the jury is the French historian and critic Joël Schmidt.
Winners of Prix du Premier Roman
1977: Michel Arrivé, Les remembrances du vieillard idiot, (Flammarion) 1978: 1979: Marco Koskas, Balace Bounel 1980: Dan Franck, Les Calendes grecques, Calmann-Lévy 1981: Annick Geille, Portrait d'un amour coupable, Éditions Grasset 1982: Bruno Racine, Le Gouverneur de Morée, Grasset 1983: Elvire Murail, Escalier C, S. Messinger 1984: Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod, Le Rideau sur la nuit, Gallimard 1985: 1986: Alexandre Jardin, Bille en tête, Gallimard 1987: Jean-François Merle, Cale sèche, (Arléa) 1988: Nadine Diamant, Désordres, (Flammarion) 1989: Louis-Jacques Liandier, Comme un voleur dans la nuit 1990: Caroline Tiné, L'immeuble, Albin Michel 1991: Patrick Séry, Le Maître et le scorpion, Flammarion 1992: Isabelle Jarry, L'Homme de la passerelle, Mercure de France 1993: Christophe Bataille, Annam, Arléa 1994: Jean-François Kervéan, La Folie du moment, Calmann-Lévy 1995: Sophie Fontanel, Sacré Paul, NiL Éditions 1996: Pascale Roze, Le Chasseur Zéro, Albin Michel 1997: Raymond Bozier, Lieu-dit, Calmann-Lévy 1998: Christine Chaufour Verheyen, Rive dangeureuse, Fayard 1999: Boualem Sansal, Le Serment des barbares, Gallimard 2000: Bruno Gibert, Claude (Fayard) 2001: Claire Béchet, Entre parenthèses, Calmann-Lévy 2002: Christophe Dufossé, L'Heure de la sortie, Albin Michel 2003: Yasmina Trabouli, for Les Enfants de la place, Mercure de France 2004: Caroline Sers, for Tombent les avions, 2005: Hédi Kaddour, for Waltenberg, Gallimard 2006: Max Monnehay, for Corpus Christine, Albin Michel 2007: Ingrid Thobois, for Le Roi d'Afghanistan ne nous a pas mariés, Éditions Phébus 2008: Thierry Dancourt, for Hôtel de Lausanne, Éditions de La Table Ronde 2009: Jocelyn Bonnerave, for Nouveaux indiens, Éditions du Seuil 2010: Victor Cohen Hadria, for Les trois saisons de la rage 2011: Marien Defalvard, for Du temps qu'on existait, Grasset 2012: , for L'Assassin à la pomme verte, Serge Safran 2013: Clément Bénech, for L'Été slovène, Flammarion 2014: , for Vera, Mercure de France 2015: Didier Castino, for Après le silence, Liana Levi 2016: Gaël Faye, for Petit Pays, Grasset 2017: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, for Ma reine, L'Iconoclaste 2018: Clélia Renucci, for Concours pour le Paradis, Albin Michel 2019: Géraldine Dalban-Moreynas, for On ne meurt pas d'amour, Plon 2020: Ketty Rouf, for On ne touche pas, Albin Michel 2021: Maud Ventura, for Mon mari, L'iconoclaste 2022: Maria Larrea, for Les gens de Bilbao naissent où ils veulent, Grasset
Winners of Prix du Premier Roman Etranger
1998: Martin Suter, Small World (Switzerland) 1999: Boualem Sansal, Le Serment des barbares (Algeria) 2000: Jim Fergus, One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd (United States) 2001: Keith Ridgway, The Long Falling (Ireland) 2002: Gwen Edelman, War Story (United States) 2003: Lavinia Greenlaw, Mary George of Allnorthover (United Kingdom) 2004: Inderjit Badhwar, The Chamber of Perfumes (India) 2005: Samina Ali, Madras on Rainy Days (India) 2006: Benjamin Kunkel, Indecision (United States) 2007: Dinaw Mengestu, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears (United States) 2008: James Cañón, Tales from the Town of Widows (Colombia) 2009: Chloe Aridjis, Book of Clouds (United States) 2010: Amanda Smyth, Black Rock (Ireland) 2011: Nic Pizzolatto, Galveston: A Novel (United States) 2012: Amy Waldman, The Submission (United States) 2013: Patrick McGuinness, The Last Hundred Days (United Kingdom) 2014: Rene Denfeld, The Enchanted: A Novel (United States) 2015: (ex-æquo) Vanessa Barbara, Noites de alface (Brazil) 2015: (ex-æquo) Maja Haderlap, Angel of Oblivion (Austria) 2016: Davide Enia, On Earth as It Is in Heaven: A Novel (Italy) 2017: Katharina Winkler, Blue Jewellery (Germany) 2018: Shih-Li Kow, The Sum of Our Follies (Malaysia) 2019: Sana Krasikov, The Patriots (United States) 2020: Olja Savičević, Adios Cow Boy (Croatia) 2021: Daniel Loedel, Hadès, Argentine (United States) 2022: Jarred McGinnis, The Coward (United States)
References