Moroccan writer and academic Abdelfattah Kilito, who was born in Rabat in 1945, won the Grand Prix de la Francophonie, one of the two prestigious prizes that the French Academy annually awards to foreign writers. The Grand Medal of the Francophonie was awarded to American academic Edwin M. Duval.
This is the second time that the author of “Thou Shalt Not Speak My Language” (2002) has been honoured by the Académie française, having previously received one of its awards in 1996.
At this year’s edition, the Académie française, founded in 1635, announced that eight of its prizes were awarded to foreigners, marking an unprecedented openness to non-French authors writing in French.
In addition to Kilito and Edwin M. Duval, other notable recipients include Canadian writer Helene Dorion, who won the Grand Prix de l’Énén Dorion for her work and became the first living writer to have her texts included in the French baccalaureate program.
The Grand Medal of French Song was awarded to the Italian-Belgian artist Salvatore Adamo, while the Grand Prix of Philosophy went to the Swiss philosopher Rudi Embach, who writes in both French and German. The Hervé Deloin Grand Prix, given to those who strive to make French a universal language, was awarded to Ukrainian philosopher Konstantin Segov.
The Prize for the Brilliance of French Language and Literature was awarded to several distinguished individuals, including American writer Dana Chris, Italian historian Francesco Massa, and French-Afghan Emmanuel Gerard, host of the “Francophone Library” programme. Additionally, the Moron Grand Prix” was awarded to Israeli-French philosopher and writer Daniel S. Melo Israel for his book La Survie des Médiocres.
The Theatre Prize was awarded to French novelist, playwright, theatre director, screenwriter, and film director Florian Zeller, while the Le Prix Léon de Rosen for work in the field of environment went to French cartoonist Jean Plantu, and the Film Prize was given to film director Pascal Bonitzer.
Kilito won the 10th edition of the Sultan Bin Ali Al Owais Cultural Award in Literary Studies and Criticism. He earned his state doctorate from Sorbonne Nouvelle University in Paris in 1982 for his thesis on “Narrative and Cultural Patterns in the Maqamat of Hamdani and Hariri” in both Arabic and French.
In recent years, Kilito has published several notable works, including “With Invisible Ink” (2018), “Those We Look Far Away Live Near Us” (2019), “In a Spirit of Intellectual Repentance” (2020), “Abandoning Literature” (2021), and a novel titled “I Swear to God, This Tale is My Story” (2021)
