The Paris Literary Prize Inaugural Award Event was held on June 16, 2011 at La Société des Gens de Lettres in Paris, France.

    

The Société des Gens de Lettres is the most important writers’ association in France (with over 10.000 members). It was founded in 1838 by French authors Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and George Sand, and continues to be the only writer-run writers' association in the country with the expressed aim of defending the moral rights, legal interests, and social and legal status of all writers.

Rosa Rankin-Gee was chosen as the winner of the inaugural Paris Literary Prize at a celebration in Paris on June 16, 2011. Adam Biles and Agustin Maes were our two runners-up. Congratulations to all of you!

Read the bios of our winner and two 2011 Paris Literary Prize runners-up on the 2011 Prize page.

Thank You!

The Paris Literary Prize Committee sends a huge "Thank You" for your writing, your voices, and your stories from around the globe. You wrote from 34 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Greece, Holland, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Israel, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, USA. And, you were 54% male and 46% female.

Our dedicated team of twelve readers combed through each submission in search of stories, voices and craft. We are proud to say that each submission was read by a minimum of six readers.

The identity of all entrants was kept blinded throughout the process. A longlist, approximately ten percent of the entrants, was contacted to submit their completed novella. By the end of April we presented a shortlist of submissions to the judges. The shortlist has been posted on our 2011 Prize page.

The jury panel had the daunting task of reading the shortlist and deciding which of the strong voices, rich stories and quality writing would be chosen as the winner of the first Paris Literary Prize for an unpublished writer. We hope that, in some small way, the prize has encouraged all the entrants to develop their writing and highlighted the novella as a literary genre.

Thank you for all the positive and encouraging feedback about the prize. We are committed to doing everything we can to make each future contest better than the last. Please continue to check the Paris Literary Prize website for updates.

As F. Scott Fitzgerald said,

"The reason one writes isn't the fact he/she wants to say something.
One writes because they have something to say."

You all have something to say, so please keep writing.