Paris (France) (AFP) – Who will succeed Laurent Mauvignier for Goncourt 2026? Four writers are in the running on Tuesday for the most famous literary prize, more determined than ever to reward a work written by a human and not with artificial intelligence after the Thélyson Orélien affair.

Published on: 03/11/2026 - 02:23

The ceremony is immutable: at midday, the name of the winning work is announced by the president of the Académie Goncourt on the staircase of the Drouant restaurant, in the center of Paris, in front of a swarm of journalists.

The winner then arrives on foot and joins the members of the jury with whom he shares a lunch, the menu of which is kept secret.

The selection process began at the end of spring, when the jurors began to receive the novels for the literary season, some 400 works to read. They select around twenty in September and then refine their list.

This year, the nine members of the Goncourt Academy kept four books, very different in content and form: "The Unknown Girl from Quai de Javel" by Philippe Jaenada, "The Solitude of Professors Is Infinite" by Yannick Haenel, "Things I Thought Lost" by Clémentine Mélois and "On the Other Side of the Lake" by Sylvain Prudhomme.

“When you win a literary prize, it's great, it's joy. Because it's one of the important ways to make your book known, to sell books and to have readers,” Philippe Jaenada recently testified, interviewed by AFP.

"If we don't have it, we shouldn't cry. We will have it in the next book... or not", added the 62-year-old author, already crowned with the Femina prize in 2017.

For a writer as for a publishing house, winning the Goncourt is in fact the assurance of selling hundreds of thousands of copies because the book, adorned with the red “Prix Goncourt”, is highlighted in the media and bookstores as Christmas approaches.

Difficult context

This year, Goncourt will not escape the Madrigall group, the fourth French publisher, which owns Gallimard (publisher of books by Haenel and Mélois), Flammarion (Jaenada) and Minuit (Prudhomme).

In 2025, Madrigall had already enjoyed success with Laurent Mauvignier's novel "La maison vide", a 750-page book which sold nearly 640,000 copies.

Like other sectors, the publishing world is experiencing a difficult year in 2026 with a drop in sales linked to purchasing power difficulties, bookstore closures and the decline in reading, in competition with screens.

Added to this is the impact of the controversy created by the Thélyson Orélien affair, this Canadian-Haitian author, whose novel “It Was That or Die” was critically acclaimed before he was accused of having written it with the help of AI.

Presented as one of the favorites, it was withdrawn from the Goncourt selection and eliminated from the other literary prizes.

The Goncourt Academy has indicated that it is considering "slightly modifying" its regulations to "clearly specify" that its prize "can only reward a work written by a human being".

Publishing houses, such as Gallimard, have also decided to pass manuscripts through an AI detector before their publication.

In addition to the Goncourt, the Renaudot prize is announced on Tuesday, while the Femina is revealed the next day.

On Monday, the Médicis Prize was awarded to Philippe Vasset for “Dans les grandslines” (Flammarion), the story of a crossing of France following high-voltage lines.

Last week, the Grand Prix du roman of the French Academy rewarded Sébastien Lapaque for "The Recall of the Birds", while the December Prize was awarded to Anne Godard for "Nous aussi", two works published by Actes Sud.

© 2026 AFP

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