The Victor Rossel Prize for Literature was awarded to Velibor Čolić for his novel War and Rain, published by Gallimard.
Originally from Bosnia, the novelist Velibor Čolić uses writing to narrate his post-war experience. Engaged in the Croatian-Bosnian army during the 1992 conflict, Čolić, then aged twenty-eight, aspired to desert this fratricidal conflict which he describes as “ macabre drinking ».
Velibor Čolić, exiled in France and based in Brussels, continues to deliver work marked by humor and resilience in the face of the horror of war. In his latest novel, he describes survival in the trenches and the strength of poetry in the face of violence, mixing derision and absurdity to highlight the stupidity of war. Through writing, he manages to heal his wounds and recalls, like a Vaclav Havel of the battlefields, the power of the word to counter human madness.
READ – Anatomy of war and the body, by Velibor Čolić
Velibor Čolić was born in 1964 in a small town in Bosnia where he lost his house and his manuscripts, reduced to ashes during the war. Inspired by his own story, he returns in his novels, published by Gallimard, to the years of violence which bloodied the Balkans: War and rain (2024) ; The book of departures (2020) ; Exile Manual. How to succeed in exile in thirty-five lessons (2016) ; Sarajevo to all (2012).
Nathalie Skowronek received the Victor Rossel Readers’ Prize for The Voice of the Willowsedited by Grasset. As for the Victor Rossel Comics Prize, it went to Romain Renard for See Comanche again, published by Le Lombard. Finally, the Victor Rossel Academy of Comics Grand Prize, which rewards an author for all of his work, was awarded to Léonie Bischoff.
Created in 1938 in memory of Victor Rossel, son of the founder of Le Soir, the Victor Rossel prize aims to promote Belgian literature by rewarding a novel or a collection of short stories each year, with the exception of the period of the Second World War ( 1940-1945).
Since 2021, a prize specific to comics completes the list, awarded by the Victor Rossel Comics Academy, heir to the Diagonale/Le Soir prizes founded in 2008 by Jean Dufaux.
In 2023, for the 80th edition, a new prize was introduced: the Victor Rossel Readers’ Prize, which distinguishes a work on criteria similar to the main literature prize. This year, the ceremony is in its 81st edition, testifying to the long tradition of celebrating Belgian literature and comics.
The 2023 Rossel Prize was awarded to Antoine Wauters, François Schuiten and Jean Cremers.
Find the list of French and French-speaking literary prizes
Photo credits: Photo credits: Francesca Mantovani (Éditions Gallimard)
By Hocine Bouhadjera
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