Yannick Haenel wins the Prix Femina for a novel of early teaching years

The Prix Femina 2026 has gone to Yannick Haenel for "La solitude des professeurs est infinie" (Gallimard), according to Livres Hebdo and Le Monde. Haenel had been a finalist for this year's Goncourt without winning it. The novel's prize was announced Wednesday at the Dior headquarters in Paris, where Haenel dedicated the book "aux professeurs, aux lycéens et aux collégiens," according to Le Temps, in the midst of a student protest movement.

Published in August, the novel follows Jean Deichel, a trainee French teacher who arrives at a struggling secondary school in Mantes-la-Jolie, outside Paris, and discovers both the strain of the job and the desire to teach, according to Le Temps. Le Monde describes the book as a "roman solaire, et non scolaire" built around a young teacher's powerful wish to pass something on. Haenel, 59, drew on his own experience as a teacher in the Paris suburbs in the 1990s, before turning to writing, Télérama and Le Temps report. He studied in Rennes, and has previously won the Prix Interallié for "Jan Karski" (2009) and the Prix Médicis for "Tiens ferme ta couronne" (2017); he also writes for the press, including Charlie Hebdo.

The twelve-member, all-female jury preferred Haenel's novel to Emma Marsantes's "N'efface pas mes cercles" (Verdier) and Lucie Rico's "Mais que fait ce sang sur le pull de Jennifer?" (P.O.L), both of which also drew votes, according to Le Temps. Haenel succeeds last year's laureate, Nathacha Appanah, Télérama notes.

In the Femina's other categories, the foreign novel prize went to the American writer Laura Kasischke for "Baignade surveillée" (Gallimard), and the essay prize to Jennifer Tamas for "Barbe Bleue, contre-enquête" (Seuil), according to Livres Hebdo and Le Monde.