The 2026 Prix Femina has been awarded to Yannick Haenel for La solitude des professeurs est infinie, published by Gallimard. The jury announced its choice on Wednesday, November 4, in Paris, at 30 Montaigne, which is hosting the announcement this year after the Musée Carnavalet.
The novel follows Jean Deichel, a young French teacher discovering the profession at a middle school in the Paris suburbs. Staying at a tennis club in Deuil-la-Barre, he navigates the challenges of teaching while trying to pass on his love of literature. The story’s setting in the Paris region accompanies the character’s first steps in front of his students.
The Femina Foreign Novel Prize goes to Laura Kasischke for Supervised Swimming, published by Gallimard in a translation by Céline Leroy. The Femina Essay Prize honors Jennifer Tamas for Bluebeard: A Counter-Investigation, published by Seuil.
Yannick Haenel succeeds Nathacha Appanah, who won the award in 2025 for La Nuit au cœur. The novelist had already won the Prix Médicis in 2017 for Tiens ferme ta couronne.
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