France – Le Point, May 21, 2025
The novelist, currently imprisoned in Algeria, has been honored for his entire body of work by the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation.
The Cino Del Duca Foundation is celebrating its 50th anniversary in a remarkable way this year—by awarding its World Prize for Literature to Boualem Sansal. Currently jailed in Algiers for his outspoken criticism of his country, a stance that has drawn the ire of Prime Minister Mohamed Ennadir Larbaoui’s government and President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the novelist received the news while behind bars.
Will he be able to personally receive the award on June 18 from the hands of the Permanent Secretary of the French Academy, Amin Maalouf? That is the hope of his support committee, which includes Kamel Daoud, Marie Ndiaye, Daniel Pennac, Laure Adler, Roberto Saviano, Camille Laurens, and Erri de Luca, among others.
In selecting Boualem Sansal—following last year’s recipient Yasmina Reza—the jury, which includes Dominique Bona, Daniel Rondeau, Sylviane Agacinski, Michel Zink, Muriel Mayette-Holtz, Adrien Goetz, and Nicolas Baverez, said it aimed to honor the work of “a writer who, beyond borders and censorship, continues to give voice to free speech that is profoundly humanistic and urgently necessary.”
The foundation’s committee, chaired by Xavier Darcos, has previously honored authors such as Haruki Murakami, Maryse Condé, and Kamel Daoud. It reaffirmed its “commitment to the freedom of creation and publication, and to the protection of cultural life and intellectual debate.”
