The books of the relatives of the jurors become ineligible at the literary price and the academicians will no longer be able to chronic to the works that appear in the selection
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The Goncourt Academy, which revealed, Tuesday, October 5, its second selection of works for the most coveted literary price of the hexagon, also modified its rules of procedure at an extraordinary general meeting. Written by Françoise Chandernagor, two new articles have been adopted unanimously. The first makes it ineligible at the Goncourt price “the works of spouses, companions or close relatives of the members of the jury”. The precise text that “it belongs, if any, to the Academician concerned to inform the society of the existence of such proximity”.
This new rule therefore forces the jurors, under penalty of exclusion, to reveal their local ties with the authors in competition. Such a modification has emerged after France Inter posed, on 21 September, that the Author Camille Laurens, a member of the jury and also literary criticism at the “World of Books”, was the companion of the writer François Noudelmann.
“Respect the secret of the vote”
The book of the latter, the children of Cadillac, published at Gallimard, figured in the first selection. This revelation was also sarcastically commented by the Anglo-Saxon press. The Goncourt Academy had argued in vain that Camille Laurens and François Noudelmann were not married and that one lived in Paris, the other in New York. And all the jurors had been made aware of their relationship. But, facing the outcry, the academy has preferred “to avoid this kind of problem in our mind, it falls in the sense, we can not crown his relatives. From now on, it says”, explains to The President of the Jury, Didier Decoin. The book on the harness was removed from the second selection since this rule took effect immediately.
In addition, to the extent that Camille Laurens criticized in a severe way in the columns of the “world of books” a book of the selection, the postcard of Anne Berest, published at Grasset, the Academy there again Modified its regulations – it also mentioned in its soap opera, in a very laudative way this time, three other books in the running: the most secret memory of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, the journey in the East (Flammarion) of Christine Angot and the girl named (midnight) of Tanguy Viel. It is now stated that “the members of the jury holding a literary heading in a media refrain from chronicling the works that appear in the selection as long as [they] are there.” The Academy thus thinks better “respect the secret of the vote”. “This in the same way concerns the good or bad critics, says Mr. Decoin. They will now be put in the refrigerator the necessary time.” After a reminder to the order without consequence, Camille Laurens remains sworn of the goncourt.
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