Port-au-Prince, October 31, 2025.- The Haitian writer Yanick Lahens won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française on Wednesday, October 29, 2025 for her work Passengers de nuit, published by Sabine Wespieser. In an interview given to radio Magik 9, the author confides having written this novel « under difficult conditions », marked by the Haitian crisis, while saying: « We are constantly living in a state of emergency. »
Haitian literature once again shines on the international scene. Yanick Lahens, a major figure in French-language literature, has just won the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française 2025 for his latest work, Passengers de nuit. Awarded in the third round of the election, the prize crowned the writer by 11 votes to 10, a sign of a vote as tight as it seemed of the prestige of her work.
Yanick Lahens sincerely delivered behind the scenes of the creation of this novel. « It is one of the books on which I had the most doubts, because I wrote it in difficult conditions. Over the past three years, living in Haiti has not been easy », she said.
The author evokes a writing crossed by the tremors of a country in crisis, but also by an inner, almost vital necessity:
« The urgency never leaves us: whether we challenge the world order or not, there is always an internal emergency and another external emergency. »
In his words, this tension is evident between doubt and perseverance, chaos and creation, reality and literature. True to his vision, Yanick Lahens recalls that writing is not a posture, but an existential commitment:
« Writer, this is not a social status. It's an attitude to yourself, to your own demands and to the way you look at the world. »
Through her Night Passengers, the author continues her exploration of the Haitian collective destiny, carried by a prose both poetic and lucid. This award, awarded by the oldest French literary institution, devotes a work that links Haiti's nights to the world's emergencies.
W.A.
