The Prix Goncourt is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author. Four other prizes are also awarded: prix Goncourt du Premier Roman, prix Goncourt de la Nouvelle, prix Goncourt de la Poésie (poetry) and prix Goncourt de la Biographie (biography). Of the "big six" French literary awards, the Prix Goncourt is the best known and most prestigious. The other major literary prizes include the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis.
François Cheng is a Chinese-born French academician, writer, poet, and calligrapher. He is the author of essays, novels, collections of poetry and books on art written in the French language, and the translator of some of the great French poets into Chinese.
Josiane Balasko is a French actress, writer, and director. She has been nominated seven times for César Awards, and won twice.
Zoé Oldenbourg was a Russian-born French popular historian and novelist who specialized in medieval French history, in particular the Crusades and Cathars.
Marie Darrieussecq is a French writer. She is also a translator, and has practised as a psychoanalyst.
Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt is a Franco–Belgian playwright, short story writer and novelist, as well as a film director. His plays have been staged in over fifty countries all over the world.
Louise L. Lambrichs is a French novelist and essayist.
Pierre Delanoë, born Pierre Charles Marcel Napoléon Leroyer in Paris, France, was a French lyricist who wrote thousands of songs for dozens of singers, including Dalida, Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Petula Clark, Johnny Hallyday, Joe Dassin, Michel Sardou and Mireille Mathieu. Delanoë was his grandmother's maiden name.
Catherine Belkhodja is a French artist, actress and film director.
Anne Cuneo was a Swiss journalist, novelist, theatre and film director and screenwriter.
Marie-Aude Murail is a French writer. She is best known for her numerous children and teen novels that go over a wide range of subjects including homosexuality and serious illnesses.
Catherine Mouchet is a French actress.
Juliette Benzoni was a French author and international bestseller in several genres, including historical romance, historical fiction, mystery and screenwriting. In 1998, at the age of 78, she received the Chevalier de l'Ordre National from President Jacques Chirac.
Geneviève Brisac is a French writer.
Chantal Thomas is a French writer and historian. Her 2002 book, Farewell, My Queen, won the Prix Femina and was adapted into a 2012 film starring Diane Kruger and Léa Seydoux.
Nelly Kaplan was an Argentine-born French writer and film director who focused on the arts, film, and filmmakers. She studied economics at the University of Buenos Aires. Passionate about cinema, she abruptly put her studies on hold to go to Paris to represent the new Argentine film archive at an international convention and later became a correspondent for different Argentine newspapers. She met Abel Gance in 1954, who gave her the opportunity to work on the film La tour de Nesle.
Maryse Wolinski was a French journalist, novelist and writer. She was the widow of cartoonist Georges Wolinski who died on 7 January 2015 during the Charlie Hebdo shooting in Paris.
Denyse Benoit is a Canadian actress, director and screenwriter from Montreal, Quebec. She is mostly known for La Crue (1977), La belle Apparence (1979) and Le dernier Havre (1986).
Catherine Weinzaepflen is a French writer
Nicole de Buron was a French writer.
