Laurence Ruel (born 6 November 1957), known by her

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

Camille Laurens, is a French writer and winner of the 2000

Prix Femina The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine '' La Vie heureuse'' (today known as '' Femina''). The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury. They reward French-language works written ...

for ''Dans ces bras-là''. Laurens is a member of the

Académie Goncourt The Société littéraire des Goncourt (Goncourt Literary Society), usually called the Académie Goncourt (Goncourt Academy), is a French literary organisation based in Paris. It was founded in 1900 by the French writer and publisher Edmond de Go ...

Career

A graduate of

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

, Camille Laurens taught in

Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

. In 1984, she began teaching in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, where she spent twelve years. Since September 2011, she has taught at the

Institut d'études politiques de Paris , motto_lang = fr , mottoeng = Roots of the Future , type = Public research university''Grande école'' , established = , founder = Émile Boutmy , accreditation ...

(Sciences Po). Between 2007 and 2019, she was a member of the jury for the

. She had been a member of the

since 11 February 2020.

Controversy

In September 2021, the

Prix Goncourt The Prix Goncourt (french: Le prix Goncourt, , ''The Goncourt Prize'') is a prize in French literature, given by the académie Goncourt to the author of "the best and most imaginative prose work of the year". The prize carries a symbolic reward o ...

attracted controversy after the jury decided, by a vote of 7 to 3, to include ''Les enfants de Cadillac'' by

François Noudelmann François Noudelmann is a contemporary French philosopher, university professor and radio producer. François Noudelmann is currently a professor at New York University, and regularly at the University of Paris VIII (Université de Vincennes à S ...

on its 2021 list of finalists. Laurens, who is a member of the prize's jury, is the partner of Noudelmann. Laurens voted in favor of her partner's book. It also emerged that shortly after the shortlist was revealed Laurens had written a negative review in ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' of one of Noudelmann's competitors for the prize, ''La Carte postale'' by

Anne Berest Anne Berest (born September 15, 1979) is a French writer and actress. Biography In 2008 she adapted Patrick Modiano's short autobiography ''Un Pedigree'' for the theatre with Edouard Baer. , son of Françoise Sagan asked Berest to write about ...

France Inter France Inter () is a major French public radio channel and part of Radio France. It is a "generalist" station, aiming to provide a wide national audience with a full service of news and spoken-word programming, both serious and entertaining, li ...

, who first revealed the

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

, described her review as containing "unheard-of brutality". Laurens defended herself, saying that she wrote the review before the Goncourt selected its finalists. She also claimed she was being attacked for being a woman and not on the substance of her arguments in the review. However, historian Jean-Yves Mollier said, "She straight-out assassinated one of the candidates." In October 2021, the

ultimately decided that it will no longer allow lovers and family members of the jury to be entered for consideration.

Awards and honours

* 2000:

for ''Dans ces bras-là'' * 2000: Prix Renaudot des lycéens for ''Dans ces bras-là'' * 2006: Finalist in the first selection for the

for ''Ni toi ni moi'' * 2006: Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres * 2008: Prix Bourgogne de littérature for ''Tissé par mille'' * 2016: Prix du Roman-News for ''Celle que vous croyez'' * 2018: Prix David de l'expertise for ''La Petite Danseuse de 14 ans'' * 2018: Prix Ève-Delacroix of the

Académie Française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

for ''La Petite Danseuse de 14 ans'' * 2020: Best Book of the Year by the magazine '' Lire'' for ''Fille''

Works

* * ** ** * ** * * * * * * * * * ** ''Little Dancer Aged Fourteen: The True Story Behind Degas's Masterpiece'' (English translation), Other Press, 2018

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laurens, Camille 1957 births Living people Writers from Dijon French women novelists Prix Femina winners Academic staff of Sciences Po 20th-century French non-fiction writers 21st-century French non-fiction writers Officiers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 20th-century French women writers 21st-century French women writers Prix Renaudot des lycéens winners Pseudonymous writers Pseudonymous women writers