Two Book Prizes in French

Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition awarded the Frederick Douglass Book Prize to Marlene L. Daut for her book Awakening the Ashes.

The Prix Littéraire Fetkann (*translation below) awarded Alice Kaplan a mention spéciale du jury for her book Baya ou le grand vernissage:

Congratulations to both of them on their terrific books!

* Alice Kaplan receives honorable mention for the FETKANN! MARYSE CONDE 2024 literary prize

“Memory of the global south—memory of humanity”

Baya ou le grand vernissage published in Marseille by the Editions le Bruit du Monde and in Algiers by the Editions Barzkh was recognized in the category “memory”—for works of fiction and documentaries.

The FETKANN! MARYSE CONDE literary prize recognizes recent works that promote the memory of people of color in the global south. It aims to reinforce social bonds and promote human dignity.  In the face of tragic histories, all communities–whatever their origin, their culture, their religion–must benefit from the same mark of respect and recognition. We wish to make available to young people and to general audiences a knowledge of these histories, for  knowledge is an effective way to avoid the repetition of the very worst scenarios. 

“Fetkann” in creole means “sugar cane festival”—the sugar cane recalling the voyage from Africa to the Antilles, the exploitation of slaves and their combat for freedom.

Maryse Condé (1934-2024) was a French novelist, critic and playwright and academic from Guadeloupe, known for I, Tituba Witch of Salem, The Children of Segu, and Crossing the Mangrove.