This semester, Profs. Cheryl Krueger and Ari Blatt, both in the Department of French, are co-facilitating a new, 1-credit reading seminar in which 17 undergraduate students are participating in the “Choix Goncourt USA,” an initiative sponsored by the French Cultural Services of the French Embassy. The UVa group is one of 8 similar contingents made up of students and faculty in French at other universities (Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Duke, MIT, Columbia, and NYU) who have been charged with selecting this year's winner of a special American iteration of the celebrated Goncourt Book Prize, the most prestigious literary award in France. Over the course of the semester, students will read and discuss the six books on the Goncourt Prize short list with an eye toward making a decision for their top choice in April.
Thanks to generous funding provided by the CGII, by the College of Arts and Sciences, and by the Department of French, UVa will send two students to represent the Choix Goncourt seminar at a meeting with student representatives from other participating schools to be held on April 29 at the French Embassy in New York. The 16 members of this exclusive jury will decide the winner of the 2023 Choix Goncourt USA prize, which will be awarded later that day at a ceremony hosted by last year's winner, author Anne Berest, as well as the French Ambassador to the United States.