Second-Round Nominees Announced; Goncourt and Renaudot Dispute Over AI Continues

The juries of the Goncourt and Renaudot prizes announced their second-round honorees, while the selection or rejection of a book accused of using artificial intelligence remains evident in this round as well.

While the jury of the Goncourt Prize and Renaud Prize announced the names of the second round of winners, the choice or rejection of a book that is accused of using artificial intelligence is also evident in the second round.

According to Ambassador Arjan's report, quoted by Liver Hebdo, unlike the judges of the Goncourt Prize, who removed it from their first list after the accusation of using artificial intelligence in the novel "It was or died" written by Tillison Orlin from Grasse Publishing, the Renaud judges decided to keep this novel in their second list as well.

This decision was taken after the author was questioned for the extensive use of artificial intelligence in the writing of this book, as well as allegations of plagiarism in older works.

Despite the fact that the book of Talyson Orlin became the most important literary event of the autumn of France, the Académie Goncourt said in a statement that this decision was made with the aim of "maintaining the prestige of the Goncourt Prize and the Academy", whose main task is to "promote and select literature written by women and men".

The novel, released this spring, is about a history teacher who flees a violent country and crosses 12 countries on his way to Canada. In addition to the Goncourt, this book was also included in the list of Medici and Femina awards and received the "Fanac" award for the best novel, which is one of the prestigious and influential French literary awards.

As usual, the Goncourt Award first announced the names of the candidates for the second round of this year's competition, and then the 10 Renaud Award jury members published their second list. Meanwhile, this year is the 100th edition of this literary award, which was established in 1926 by journalists who opposed the selection of the Goncourt Award.

In the second round of selection for Renaud Award 2026 in the novel section, the winners are:

Boris Bergman for "Minotaur" (Albin Michel)

Jean-Marie Blas de Robles for "Sipango" (Zolma)

Hamley Baum for "Our Wild Life" (Gallimar)

François-Henri Desrabel for "The Palace" (Gallimart)

Osvalde Lovatt for "The Restless Body" (Philip Ray)

Tallyson Orlin for "It's Or Die" (Grace)

Anne Persin for "Eugene Under the Bombs" (Bouche Chassel)

Marie Petitcueno for "Wild Hours" (Héloise Dwarmsson)

Jean-Paul Antoine for "Dictionary of a Happy Lover" (Plon)

Luz for "Diamonds in the Rubble" (Stock)

Louis Michaud for "My Friend Kornowski" (Le Rocher)

Christophe Uno-Diet-Beau for "Odysseus" (Grace)

Olivier Rollin for "Eternal War" (Gallimart)

Joy Surman for "Raw Life" (Flamarion)

Last year, the book "I Live" written by Adelaide de Clermont-Tonner (Grasse) won this award and until today, 201,000 copies of it have been sold. In the non-fiction category, Alfred de Montesquieu was selected for The Corpuscule of Men (Robert Lafont), although he was not among the shortlisted authors.

The jury of the Renaud Prize includes Jean-Marie-Gustave Leclezio, Georges-Olivier Chaturino, Jean-Noel Pancratsi, Frans-Olivier Guisbert, Dominique Bona, Patrick Besson, Frédéric Bigbader, Cécile Gilbert, Stéphanie Jeanicot, and Mohamed Isaiai.

On the other hand, in the second round of the Goncourt 2026 selection, these works made it to the second round:

Sonia Devillers for "Magic Piano" (Rober Lafon)

That Godard for "We Also" (Profit Act)

Yannick Hennel for "The Endless Solitude of Teachers" (Gallimar)

Philip Jainada for "Anonymous of Javel Pier" (Flammarion)

Clementine Melva for "Things I Thought Were Lost" (Arbalt/Gallimart)

Sylvain Prudhomme for "Beyond the Lake" (Minoy)

This list was selected from the initial list, which included 16 French novels, which was reduced to 15 titles after the exclusion of "It was or death".

This year, 461 new novels, which were placed on the counters of bookstores in the new French literary season, claimed to be in this competition.

The list of the third round of selection will be announced on October 28 (Wednesday, November 6) and the winner will be announced on November 3 (Tuesday, November 12) at Droane Restaurant.