Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie has been named one of three winners of Le Grand Prix de l’héroïne Madame Figaro for her book “Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions”
The head of the panel, Patrick Poivred’Arvor, a French journalist, selected one French novel, one foreign novel in translation, and one nonfictional work. Chimamanda Adichie’s “Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions”, translated in French as “ChèreIjeawele, ou un manifeste pour une education féministe,” the French translation of ‘Dear Ijeawele” emerged the winner in the nonfictional category.
Adichie’s French publisher, Marie-Pierre Gracedieu said, “when I read Dear Ijeawele, I felt an urge to share it with many friends, women and men, who had become parents of a girl in the recent years. Then I started to feel it had to be read by parents of boys too. And thereafter by every one of us; to investigate our own education, and try to overcome a few inherited clichés. Therefore to publish it at Gallimard has meant a lot to me, and it is a very rewarding experience to see it awarded the Grand Prix de l’Héroïne by Madame Figaro, a prize that celebrates the power of literature and of characters as role models.”
The French Literary Award was established in 2006 by the French magazine, Madame Figaro, to celebrate heroines of French and foreign literature. Each year, shortlisted works selected by the editor of the magazine are considered by the panel of judges for the respective awards.
