Prix Femina


The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse. The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works written in prose or verse, by both women and men. The winner is announced on the first Wednesday of November each year.

Femina - Vie Heureuse Prize

After the Great War, in 1919, the Hachette Group proposed to the Allied countries to create a similar prize. Great Britain accepted, and the first meeting of its jury was held on June 20, 1920. The prize was called the Femina - Vie Heureuse Prize, and it was awarded to English writers, from 1920 to 1940. Among the winners were E. M. Forster in 1925 and Virginia Woolf in 1928.
Similarly, in 1920 Lady Northcliffe, wife of Alfred Harmsworth, proposed to create a prize for French writers called the Northcliffe prize. Among the winners were Joseph Kessel in 1924, Julien Green in 1928, and Jean Giono in 1931. The last meeting of the jury for this prize was held on April 10, 1940, before the Nazis occupied France during World War II.
The archives of the English Committee are held by Cambridge University Library.

List of winners

There are four categories: Prix Femina, Prix Femina Essai, Prix Femina Étranger, and Prix Femina des Lycéens.

Prix Femina

Prix Femina Étranger

Prix Femina Essai

Prix Femina des Lycéens

YearTitleAuthor
2016Tropique de la violenceNathacha Appanah
2017Ma reineJean-Baptiste Andrea
2018Je voudrais que la nuit me prenneIsabelle Desesquelles
2019La ChaleurVictor Jestin