Having initiated lecteurs.com, the Orange Foundation has also created two literary prizes, the Orange Book Prize and the Orange Book Prize in Africa. A third has now been added: the Prix BD Lecteurs.com (comic book prize), launched this year during the Year of the Comic Strip.
The first ever Lecteurs.com comic strip award was given in 2020!
In this year of comics, the “ninth art” is on display everywhere. In partnership with the CNL, we created a new award for emerging talent in French-language comics: The Orange Foundation’s Lecteurrs.com Comic Prize rewards promising cartoonists and screenwriters with €5,000. Their work is also supported by a media campaign.
The panel of judges is made up of comic-book lovers from Lecteurs.com, bookstore owners, and artists. Presided by the illustrator Florence Cestac, the jury chose as the very first winner “Le Château de Mon Père - Versailles Ressuscité”, by Maïté Labat (script), Jean-Baptiste Véber (script), Stéphane Lemardelé (storyboard) and Alexis Vitrebert (drawing). A graphic novel around the rehabilitation of the Palace of Versailles in the 19th century, it is both fascinating and well-documented.
The Orange Book Awards, trendsetting literary awards
Created in 2019, the Orange Book Prize in Africa named its 2020 winner a few weeks ago: Youssouf Amine Elalamy is the winner for his novel, “C’est beau la guerre” (published by Le Fennec). In addition to a promotional campaign and an endowment, the prize offers significant exposure to emerging authors ... such as Djaïli Amadou Amal, Orange Book Prize in Africa 2019, who has just been awarded the Goncourt Prize for high school students 2020, for his book “Les Impatientes” (published by Emmanuelle Collas). Discovered by the Orange Foundation in 2019 and published in France in 2020, the novel embodies the Foundation’s values such as the importance of education and the cause of women in Africa.
As for French novels, the Orange Book Prize also reveals promising talents with a jury made up of enthusiasts registered on Lecteurs.com. Former laureates, such as Fanny Chiarello, Maylis de Kerangal, Jean-Baptiste Maudet, as well as Guillaume Sire (for Avant la Long Flame Rouge, published by Calmann-Lévy) winner in 2020, prove how our jurors, readers and professionals, are excellent at picking writers who will make a name for themselves!
