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". 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 are the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, the Prix Femina, the Prix Renaudot, the Prix Interallié and the Prix Médicis.
Bruno Bettelheim was an Austrian-born psychologist, scholar, public intellectual and author who spent most of his academic and clinical career in the United States. An early writer on autism, Bettelheim's work focused on the education of emotionally disturbed children, as well as Freudian psychology more generally. In the U.S., he later gained a position as professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School for Disturbed Children, and after 1973 taught at Stanford University.
Alain-Fournier was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier, a French author and soldier. He was the author of a single novel, Le Grand Meaulnes (1913), which has been filmed twice and is considered a classic of French literature. The book is based partly on his childhood.
Le roi s'amuse is a French play in five acts written by Victor Hugo. First performed on 22 November 1832 but banned by the government after one evening, the play was used for Giuseppe Verdi's 1851 opera Rigoletto.
Refrigerator mother theory, also known as Bettelheim's theory of autism, is a discredited psychological theory that the cause of autism is a lack of maternal warmth. Evidence against the refrigerator mother theory began in the late 1970s, with twin studies suggesting a genetic etiology, as well as various environmental factors. Modern research generally agrees that there is an epigenetic etiology of autism spectrum disorders.
Robert Goldman is a French songwriter. He was born in Paris, the son of Alter Mojze Goldman and Ruth Ambrunn who were Jewish Resistance fighters during the Second World War. He is the younger brother of Jean-Jacques Goldman and half-brother of Pierre Goldman.
Jean-Claude Maleval is a French Lacanian psychoanalyst, member of the École de la Cause Freudienne and professor of psychopathology at the University of Rennes 2.
Édouard Molinaro was a French film director and screenwriter.
Alain Peyrefitte was a French scholar and politician. He was a confidant of Charles de Gaulle and had a long career in public service, serving as a diplomat in Germany and Poland.
Georges Lautner was a French film director and screenwriter, known primarily for his comedies created in collaboration with screenwriter Michel Audiard.
Didier René Henri Barbelivien is a French author, lyricist, songwriter and singer. Beginning in the 1970s, he wrote a number of successful songs for artists such as: Dalida, Johnny Hallyday, Michel Sardou, Daniel Guichard, Claude François, Gilbert Montagné, Sylvie Vartan, Patti Layne, Gilbert Bécaud, Enrico Macias, Demis Roussos, Mireille Mathieu, Hervé Vilard, Michèle Torr, C. Jérôme, Christophe, Julio Iglesias, Sheila, Nicole Croisille, Patricia Kaas, Éric Charden, Jean-Pierre François, Michel Delpech, Philippe Lavil, Elsa, Gérard Lenorman, Ringo, Garou, Corynne Charby, David and Jonathan, and Caroline Legrand among others.
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.
Jean-Michel Delpech, known as Michel Delpech, was a French singer-songwriter and actor.
Vahé-Karnik Khatchadourian better known as Vahé Katcha was a French Armenian author, screenwriter and journalist. Katcha wrote 25 novels and two theatre pieces in addition to a great number of adaptations and screenwriting for a great number of French films. His novel L'Hameçon was adapted for the American film The Hook.
David Christopher Miedzianik is an English autistic poet and writer. His writings portray the more difficult aspects of autism. Additionally, most of his poems focus on social difficulties that he experiences. He is unemployed, but writes about how he wants to work and find love. Miedzianik writes about specific examples pertaining to those desires. Miedzianik's works have been extensively analyzed by noted autism researchers, who describe his writing as thoughtful, sophisticated, and displaying an unusually strong awareness of his social difficulties.
Joseph Andras is a French writer who lives in Le Havre.
Olivia Cattan is a journalist and author. She is also a campaigner. Cattan is president of "SOS autisme France" and honorary president of the campaigning feminist organisation, "Paroles de femmes" which she established.
Noël Audet was a Canadian novelist and poet from Quebec. He is most noted as a two-time nominee for the Governor General's Award for French-language fiction, receiving nominations at the 1981 Governor General's Awards for Ah, l'amour l'amour, and at the 1988 Governor General's Awards for L'Ombre de l'épervier.
Julie Dachez is a French social psychologist, lecturer and autism rights activist. She's the author of Invisible Differences and Dans ta bulle!. In 2016, she became the first openly autistic person to defend a thesis on the subject in France.
Virginie Grimaldi is a French novelist. She published her first novel Le premier jour du reste de ma vie in 2015 and followed this with Tu comprendras quand tu seras plus grande (2016), Le parfum du bonheur est plus fort sous la pluie (2017), Il est grand temps de rallumer les étoiles (2018), Quand nos souvenirs viendront danser (2019), Et que ne durent que les moments doux (2020). Her six novels all became bestsellers. Many of her works – notably the first ones – had been analysed by some media as being close to chick lit and "feel-good" literature. In 2020 she reached second place on the Le Figaro/GfK Top 10 of French novelists selling the most books in France.
