Goncourt Prize: Camille Laurens, member of the jury, suspected of conflict of interest, the Academy denies – franceinfo

Is there a conflict of interest within the Académie Goncourt? One of the sixteen writers selected for the Goncourt Prize is the companion of one of the members of the jury, Camille Laurens, reveals France Inter Tuesday September 21. For his first novel, Cadillac children, the philosopher François Noudelmann was chosen in the first selection of the Prix Goncourt. The Academy was aware of this relationship between the author and Camille Laurens.

The question was addressed on September 7, the day of the first meeting of the Goncourt jury at Drouant, continues France Inter. Is this a case of conflict of interest? For Didier Decoin, the president of the Académie Goncourt, this is not the case: “What interests us is the work and it alone.”

The links that the author may have with X or Y are not our problem (…) So yes, they are together. We felt that was no reason to penalize a good book

Didier Decoin, president of the Académie du Goncourt

France Inter

The majority of the jury “felt that there was no problem with the book being on the list”, insists Didier Decoin. He admits, however, that he would not have had the idea of ​​including his son, the novelist Julien Decoin, in a selection of Goncourt. Asked by email and SMS by France Inter, Camille Laurens did not respond. Member of the Goncourt Academy since February 2020, the writer had attracted criticism after a violent column in Le Monde des livres dated September 17, 2021 on a book which is also in the first selection of Goncourt and which addresses a theme close to that of his companion.

President Didier Decoin did “not liked at all, at all”, because from the moment the Academy had made its choice for this selection, Camille Laurens had to “to be united”. “She doesn’t have to suddenly decree that this book is a nullity (…) I didn’t like it at all. And we’ll talk about it!” The next meeting of Goncourt academics is scheduled for October 5.