Choix Goncourt Canada
Sponsored by the Académie Goncourt, the organization that awards the prestigious Prix Goncourt (Goncourt Prize) for literature, Le Choix Goncourt is an initiative designed to promote French-language literature on an international scale.
Le Choix Goncourt brings students to the forefront by giving them the opportunity to vote for an author whose novel is included in 1 of the 3 Prix Goncourt shortlists (15, 8 or 4 titles). The first edition was held in Poland in 1998, and today there are over 35 Choix Goncourt events worldwide.
In Canada, the initiative was launched in October 2023. It enables students from universities across the country to discover 4 works of contemporary French-language literature featured in the latest Prix Goncourt selection. Over a period of 6 months and under the guidance of their educator-sponsors, the participating students from each university meet regularly in reading committees to analyze and debate the works studied. Using a common rating sheet and criteria, they elect their local Choix Goncourt. In May, student representatives from each university meet in Ottawa and deliberate at the French Embassy, under the guidance of a sponsoring author, to designate their national Choix Goncourt. Throughout the year, and in parallel with the deliberations, the students take part in a program of meetings and events focused on French-language literature.
Learn more about this initiative: https://www.academiegoncourt.com/le-choix-du-canada
Choix Goncourt Canada 2026: Nathacha Appanah’s La Nuit au cœur (Night in the heart)
On Monday, May 4, 2026, the student representatives of the reading committees of 11 Canadian universities made their way to the French Embassy in Canada. There, as members of the Choix Goncourt Canada selection panel, they awarded the 2026 Choix Goncourt Canada prize to Nathacha Appanah for her novel La Nuit au cœur (Night in the heart), published by Gallimard.
The initiative brought together 84 students from the following universities:
- McMaster University
- Queen’s University
- The University of Alberta
- The University of British Columbia
- The University of Calgary
- The University of New Brunswick
- The University of Ottawa
- The University of Toronto
- The University of Waterloo
- The University of Winnipeg
- Toronto Metropolitan University
For this third edition, the university reading committees had six months to study and debate the 4 novels from the 2025 Prix Goncourt shortlist:
- Nathacha Appanah’s La Nuit au cœur (Night in the heart), Editions Gallimard
- Emmanuel Carrère’s Kolkhoze (Kolkhoz), POL
- Caroline Lamarche’s Le Bel obscur, Editions du Seuil
- Laurent Mauvignier’s La Maison vide (The Empty House), Les Editions de Minuit
The patron of this edition was Hélène Gaudy, a French writer and finalist for the 2024 Prix Goncourt for her novel Archipels (L’Olivier, 2024).
Alongside the deliberations, Hélène Gaudy visited students at École secondaire publique Gisèle-Lalonde and école secondaire publique De La Salle. She also spent time with readers at the Alliance Française d’Ottawa and at the Librairie du Soleil for a book-signing. Her visit to Ottawa also provided an opportunity to engage with the English-speaking public through her participation in the « Living History » panel discussion as part of the Ottawa International Writers Festival.
