Goncourt Academy Announces Shortlist of Winners in Beirut

The Goncourt Prize jury in March 2020 at the Drouant
restaurant. Credit: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
The Goncourt Prize jury in March 2020 at the Drouant restaurant. Credit: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
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Goncourt Academy Announces Shortlist of Winners in Beirut

The Goncourt Prize jury in March 2020 at the Drouant
restaurant. Credit: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP
The Goncourt Prize jury in March 2020 at the Drouant restaurant. Credit: Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP

At Beirut’s Pine Residence, the jury of the Goncourt literary prize has exceptionally announced the names of the four finalists in France's most prestigious literary prize. The name of the winner will be announced, as every year, at the Drouant restaurant in Paris on November 3.

Didier Decoin, president of the Académie Goncourt, announced the names of the 2022 finalists: Giuliano da Empoli for her book ‘Le Mage du Kremlin’ (Gallimard), Brigitte Giraud for ‘Vivre Vite’ (Flammarion), Cloé Korman for ‘Les Presque Sœurs’ (Seuil) and Makenzy Orcel for ‘Une Somme Humaine’ (Rivages). The ceremony was also attended by president Philippe Claudel, Camille Laurens, and Paule Constant.

This announcement in the Lebanese capital comes on the sidelines of the 1st edition of the “Beirut Books”- International and Francophone Book Festival.

Sponsored by France’s embassy in Beirut, the festival runs over 10 days in several Lebanese regions. This is the second time the Goncourt Academy announces its finalists list from Beirut, the first was in 2012.

Beirut Books, which hosts over 100 Francophone writers from around the world, witnessed some debate following a tweet by the Lebanese culture minister Mohammad Mortada, in which he said that Beirut will never be a route for normalization through writers partaking in a cultural event, without naming the writers or the nature of their activities.

The tweet was deleted shortly, but the debate continued between some who considered that the minister is distorting Lebanon’s reputation as the country of liberties, and others who assured that there is no room for tolerance with Israel or those who support it. However, some francophone writers didn’t wait for the end of the Lebanese debate and announced they are not willing to attend the festival because they don’t feel comfortable.

Among those are Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Pascal Bruckner, Pierre Assouline, and Tahar Ben Jelloun. When the jury members were asked about their colleagues’ decision not to attend, Decoin replied: “They said why they’re not coming and voiced their opinion about that. As for Pascal, he has a personal situation.”

Asked whether it’s because the freedom of expression, Philippe Claudel said: “The entire world has problems with the freedom of expression. Even the most democratic countries have some topics that cannot be discussed, taboos are everywhere. Even in the US, there are some terms that people cannot say. It’s a universal complication. Anyone can write whatever they want on social media, and do whatever they want, in one minute.”

“I won’t feel safe in this country where killing is so easy,” Tahar Ben Jelloun said after he announced he’s not going to attend the festival. It’s worth noting that Ben Jelloun was invited to many events in Lebanon in the past years but didn’t attend any.

The academy members who came to Beirut expressed their gratitude and joy for the hospitality and warmth they received, saying they are ready to return any time, and that they will visit different regions to meet the Lebanese people. They also said their work at the academy has went beyond reading books and selecting winners, to travelling, meeting with readers, and bringing books closer to people’s tastes, which is a very important task.

About the four winners, the jurors said they are thrilled with the results because the academy was always falsely accused of excluding women, non-French candidates, or small publishing houses.

Among this year’s winners are two women, and two men including and Italian and a Swiss. Last year, Senegalese novelist Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, and a small Senegalese publishing house won the prize.

According to the jury members, their selection was mainly based on the joy of reading and the quality, noting that they spent a lovely summer exchanging and discussing the novels. The winners were selected based on the majority of voices following democratic deliberations in a videocall that included all the jury members.



First Major US Winter Storm of Year Hammers Mid-Atlantic States

 A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
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First Major US Winter Storm of Year Hammers Mid-Atlantic States

 A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)
A person walks down a street covered in snow following a winter storm Monday, Jan. 6, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP)

The first major winter storm of the new year barreled into the US mid-Atlantic states on Monday, closing down federal offices and public schools in Washington, DC, after dumping a foot of snow in parts of the Ohio Valley and Central Plains.

More than five inches (12.7 cm) had fallen in the country’s capital by midday on Monday, according to the US National Weather Service, with up to 12 inches in some surrounding areas of Maryland and Virginia. The snow was forecast to continue before the system pushes out to sea on Monday evening.

Severe travel disruptions were expected across the storm's path, and officials urged drivers to stay off the roads if possible. Governors in several states, including Kansas, Kentucky, Arkansas, West Virginia, Virginia and Maryland, have declared states of emergency.

In the wake of the storm, dangerously frigid Arctic air was filling the void, bringing freezing rain and icy conditions to a swath of the country stretching from Illinois to the Atlantic coast. The unusually cold temperatures are expected to linger for the rest of the week.

The Central Plains, where the storm dumped heavy snow over the weekend, were already in a deep freeze. Parts of Kansas experienced bitter cold wind chills, with values from 5 to almost 25 degrees Fahrenheit below zero (minus 15 to 32 degrees Celsius) overnight. The cold air will persist, with daytime highs only in the mid teens to lower 20s.

The airport in Kansas City recorded 11 inches (28 cm) of snowfall, the highest for any storm in more than 30 years, the National Weather Service said. The Missouri State Police said it had responded on Sunday to more than 1,000 stranded motorists and 356 crashes, including one fatality.

In Washington, even as the storm struck, Congress met to formally certify Republican Donald Trump's election as president. But federal offices in the nation's capital were closed.

In the city's Meridian Hill Park, hundreds gathered for a massive snowball battle, organized by the so-called Washington DC Snowball Fight Association. The combatants - many wearing ski goggles for protection - fired volleys of frozen projectiles, as one dog tried to catch the ammunition in its mouth.

"I did not come here to make friends!" Jack Pitsor, who lives across the street from the park, shouted with a laugh before launching a snowball toward enemy lines.

School districts in numerous states shut down on Monday due to the storm, including public schools in Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Washington and Philadelphia.

The storm also left more than 330,000 homes and businesses in the central and southern US without power on Monday, data from PowerOutage.us showed.

As of 1:30 p.m. EST (1830 GMT), nearly 1,900 flights within, into and out of the United States had been canceled, according to the FlightAware.com tracking service. Amtrak canceled dozens of trains on the busy Northeast Corridor line between Boston and Washington.

The three airports serving the D.C. area - Reagan National, Baltimore/Washington International and Dulles - were all open, with crews working to clear airfields of snow, but were seeing many flights delayed or canceled.

Virginia State Police responded to 300 car crashes between midnight and 11 a.m., while the Maryland State Police received 123 crash reports between 1 a.m. and 11 a.m., spokespeople for the two agencies said.