Certainly, the Auxerre remand center brings luck to the writers participating in the Goncourt prize for prisoners, who come within its walls. At the end of the national deliberations, this Tuesday, December 17, 2024, the award was given to Sandrine Colette for her novel Madelaine before dawn (at JC Lattès). The national deliberations brought together behind closed doors at the National Free Center (CNL) in Paris the jurors representing the ten interregional directorates of the prison administration, i.e. ten prisoners chosen by their peers, to agree on the choice of a work .
Second participation of the Auxerre remand center
A few weeks ago, on Wednesday November 6, the writer from Morvan came to participate in a time of exchange with seven of the ten inmates of the Auxerre remand center, who were taking part in the adventure. For the second consecutive year, the Auxerre prison establishment participated in the Goncourt des inmates, a prize created in 2022 and supported by the National Book Center (CNL), operator of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Justice, under the patronage of the Goncourt Academy.
And in 2023, only one author also came to meet the Auxerre detainees: Mokhtar Amoudi. Who won the 2023 Goncourt des inmates in the following weeks with his novel The ideal conditions (at Gallimard).
At the national level, nearly 600 prisoners, in 45 penitentiary establishments, met every week for three months to discuss reading the 16 works in the 2024 selection of the Goncourt Prize.
Inmates and high school students praise Sandrine Collette
On November 25, the readers of the Auxerre remand center had to submit a selection of the three works that had caught their attention the most. The other participating establishments, at the interregional level, did the same. Regional deliberations took place on December 4, 2024.
“Inmates are readers like any other. The public expects the Goncourt of prisoners as well as that of high school students. We are waiting to know who is going to put the blindfold on their book, it’s an experience that is causing a lot of talk,” reacted the winner Sandrine Collette, when she came to the Auxerre remand center in November. Her 11th book, which immerses the reader in a rural atmosphere and misery in ancient times, will therefore be able to wear a double red banner since the author also won the 2024 Goncourt des lycéens, Thursday November 28.
Thomas Ribierre
