Port-au-Prince, October 28, 2025.- The Haitian writer Yanick Lahens was not selected in the last selection of the Prix Goncourt 2025, but remains finalist of the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française and the Prix Jean-Giono. His work, Passengers de nuit, continues to seduce the French literary world.
The news fell on Tuesday 28 October 2025: "Passengers by night", published by Sabine Wespieser, is no longer among the four finalists of the prestigious Goncourt Prize. The novel, however noticed since September, thus sees its course stop at this stage. This year, the Goncourt Academy selected Nathacha Appanah, Emmanuel Carrère, Caroline Lamarche and Laurent Mauvignier for the final phase.
But for Yanick Lahens, the literary season is far from over. She remains in competition for the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française, whose winner will be unveiled on Thursday 30 October, as well as for the Jean-Giono Prize, scheduled for Thursday 13 November. These distinctions confirm the lasting recognition of his writing, both poetic, historical and committed.
In Passerières de nuit, Lahens makes two women talk a century apart between New Orleans and Port-au-Prince, exploring memory, filiation and resilience. Winner of the 2014 Femina Prize for Moonbath, she again imposes herself as one of the great voices of contemporary Haitian literature.
W.A.
