Exceptionally, the jury may award a Special Prize for a work “ cailloisienne » out of selection, as was the case for Silvia Baron Supervielle in 2013 and Jean Malaurie in 2023.
Here are the 2024 winners:
Latin American Literature Prize : Samantha Schweblin for Seven empty houses (trans. Isabelle Gugnon), Grasset
With sharp prose, Samanta Schweblin explores in Seven Empty Houses the disarray of everyday life and the tragedy of the domestic. A masterpiece of black humor which reveals to us that the frontiers of the strange begin at our doorstep.
She published Birds with their mouths full, translated by Isabelle Gugnon, Seuil, 2013; Toxictranslated by Aurore Touya, Gallimard, 2017; Kentuckytranslated by Isabelle Gugnon, Gallimard, 2020, and Seven empty houses, translated by Isabelle Gugnon, Grasset, 2024.
Samanta Schweblin lives and works in Berlin. Today she is one of the leaders of the new Latin American wave – notably alongside Fernanda Melchor and Mariana Enríquez.
French Literature Prize : René Depestre for Diary of a marine animal – Choice of poems 1956-1990Gallimard
Author of a considerable body of work in verse and prose, René Depestre, now 100 years old, is a tutelary figure in Caribbean literature. A committed writer who had to flee Haiti, his native country, to escape the dictatorship, he lived for a long time in Cuba espousing the revolutionary cause.
Friend of Césaire and Glissant, inspiration for the concept of creolity which will gradually replace that of negritude, Depestre has lived in France since the 1980s. The anthology Journal of a Marine Animal shows the extent and power of his lyric poetry.
This poet of effusion and song, cantor of “ solar eroticism » and the vital momentum against all odds, carries the reader away with its breath and a flow of vigorous images.
Trial price : Martin Rueff for At the tip of the tongueWe
In French, the word “ language » indicates both the organ housed in the hollow of the mouth and the faculty of speech. We bet that the relationship between one and the other is not accidental: just as the tongue is the only organ that can leave the body, the language that we speak is both inside and outside.
A philosophy of expression is deduced from this questioning, as well as a poetics. Poet, translator and philosopher, Martin Rueff teaches at the University of Geneva. He is the author of several essays and Books of poetry.
At Nous Editions he published The Junction in 2019, translated by Andrea Zanzotto and Italo Calvino, prepared by Jacqueline Risset and Franco Fortini.
He received the Italiques prize in 2004 and the Henri Mondor prize from the Académie Française in 2008.
Edition price: Métailié editions
The Métailié publishing house, directed by Anne-Marie Métailié, was founded in 1979 and specializes in Portuguese-speaking and Spanish-speaking literature. Among its authors from Spanish-speaking America: Luis Sepúlveda, Santiago Gamboa, Enrique Serna, Leonardo Padura, Karla Suérez and from Brazil: Adriana Lisboa, Bernardo Carvalho…
The publication of an unknown whose word of mouth will make a bestseller – Luis Sepúlveda, The Old Man who read romance novels promotes the reputation of the publishing house.
« Our job is to offer readers texts that they would never have thought to ask for, to convince them to share our passion and our love for a text. Books are there to open the world to us and allow us to live passionately. » AM Métailié.
The Roger Caillois Prize jury includes the following members: Michel Braudeau, Sylvestre Clancier, Béatrice Commengé, Gérard Durozoi (†), Odile Felgine, Claude Fell, Alexandre Fillon, Jean-Clarence Lambert, Dominique Rabourdin, Catherine Rizéa-Caillois, and François Vitrani.
From 2025, the new members of the jury will be Laura Alcoba and Guillaume Métayer, former winners of the prize.
Find the list of French and French-speaking literary prizes
Photo credits: Louise Carasco
By Hocine Bouhadjera
Contact : [email protected]
