On May 28th, Mary Relindes Ellis was awarded the Lauréat 2009 Prix littéraire des lycéens et apprentis de la region Provence-Alpes-Côted'Azur for Wisconsin (The Turtle Warrior in the U.S.) in a ceremony in Marseille, France.
The award process involves librarians, booksellers, high school teachers, and high school students. They vote on the finalists for the "novel" and "graphic novel" categories, then ultimately vote on winners for each category. It is a tremendous honor to receive this literary award because of its democratic process and because of its efforts to keep students reading for pleasure and knowledge.
The day of the ceremony featured award-winning school projects, a fantastic band that played throughout the day, a hilarious "word game" on stage with the authors in which professional comedians pretended to be chefs and waiters, and culminating in the award ceremony. In the morning, students met with the authors and in exchange for giving then a word (for the word game), received a "prescription" for suggested books to read in the future. The student involvement was amazing and gratifying. Since I do not speak French, my editor from Buchet Chastel, Marc Parent, worked as both my editor and my translator. It was my second visit within six months to a beautiful and famous region of France.
The other winner in the category of graphic novel is Cyril Pedrosa for his book Trois Ombres (see the picture of him on the stage receiving the award). A few of the writers who were finalists for the awards were able to attend and participate in the awards day. They are Thierry Maugenest who wrote Audimat Circus, Christian Astolfi who wrote Les Tamboursde Pierre, and Jean-Pierre Levaray and Efix who collaborated on the graphic novel, Putain d'Usine.
Again, I can’t thank the women of the PACA Agency enough for their generosity, patience, hard work, and skill at keeping the literary arts alive in the Provence. They are:
Elsie Deblaise, Leonor deNussac, Marina Pollas, Aurélie Giordano, Claire Castan, Françoise Ginies,Katy-Lise Atamian, and Runa Skartveit Rogne.
My gratitude also to the teachers, librarians, students, and booksellers who work so hard to make this happen each year. I especially recommend, should you visit Aix, to visit the Books in Bar Bookstore and say hello to Mary who is the owner and Anne who is the manager.
Please enjoy the following photos of the May 28th Awards Ceremony.
Mary with her editor from Buchet Chastel, Marc Parent, signing "reading prescriptions" and chatting with students and other readers.
Students from the participating schools in the Région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur held live presentations of their projects as well as displayed them. All the projects had literary themes, many of them involving graphic novels. The creativity and ingenuity was fantastic!
The band!! We had incredible music throughout the day. And then the word game on stage. I cannot speak or read French, hence Cyril Pedrosa and Marc Parent did most of the work on our team. We selected seven words each time and had to write a short story in three minutes. The comedians dressed as waiters and chefs then did a hilarious job of interrupting the process and eventually announcing the winners. It was fun.
These are some of the authors that participated in the May 28th ceremony.
Thierry Maugenest
The graphic artist known as Efix
Cyril Pedrosa
Jean-Pierre Levaray, far right
Here are photos of the awards ceremony in which Cyril Pederosa and Mary Relindes Ellis receive their literary awards. The small statue given to each writer has a lovely olive tree emblematic of the region.
The greatest joy in going back to France to receive this award was seeing many of the students that I met when I was there in February. Ultimately this ceremony is a culmination of their work and participation, their reading, and their voting on the books chosen. It is a wonderful collaboration, something I'd like to see more of in high schools in the United States.
Mary Relindes Ellis with her editor from Buchet Chastel, Marc Parent.
I spent a day on the Mediterranean which is exquisitely beautiful. With me that day (and in one of the photos) are Aurélie Giordano and Runa Skartveit Rogne. I feel very fortunate to have been invited to such a beautiful region of Europe.
