Yannick Haenel wins Prix Femina 2026 for 'La solitude des professeurs est infinie'

The prize

Yannick Haenel won the 2026 Prix Femina on Wednesday, 4 November, for La solitude des professeurs est infinie, published by Gallimard. A jury of 12 women chose the novel over Emma Marsantes's N'efface pas mes cercles (Verdier) and Lucie Rico's Mais que fait ce sang sur le pull de Jennifer ? (P.O.L), both of which also received votes. The prize was presented at the Dior headquarters in Paris, where Haenel attended the ceremony. The book is priced at 21.50 euros, and one report put sales at more than 45,000 copies at the time of reporting. Haenel had been a finalist for the Goncourt, which went to Philippe Jaenada, so the Femina offered him a second major literary recognition of the season.

A novel about teaching

The book follows Jean Deichel, a stand-in for the author, who starts as a trainee French teacher at a middle school in Mantes-la-Jolie, in the Paris suburbs. The narrator describes the stress of the job, the wish to pass on knowledge and the joy of a lesson that works. He also recalls spending his days calming the class and defusing tensions, and he insists that violence comes first in middle schools. Released in August, the novel carries a dedication to teachers, high school students and middle school students, appearing during a wave of student protest. Haenel has said he felt the need to write about the loneliness of teachers after the murders of Samuel Paty and Dominique Bernard.

Other prizes in the literary calendar

The Goncourt went to Philippe Jaenada on Tuesday, 3 November, for L'inconnue du quai de Javel (Flammarion), and the Renaudot to François-Henri Désérable for Le Palais (Gallimard). The Femina was announced the day after the Goncourt. Laura Kasischke, an American writer, took the foreign-novel prize for Baignade surveillée (Gallimard), while Jennifer Tamas won the essay prize for Barbe Bleue contre-enquête (Seuil). The 2025 Femina had gone to Nathacha Appanah for La Nuit au coeur (Gallimard).

Haenel's career

Haenel, 59, studied in Rennes and taught in the 1990s before turning to writing. His earlier books include Jan Karski, which won the Interallié prize in 2009, and Tiens ferme ta couronne, which won the Médicis in 2017. He also writes columns for the press, including for the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. Describing his Médicis-winning novel, which blends literature and cinema, he said:

“I have two passions in life: cinema, especially American cinema, and literature. With this book I tried to satisfy my cinephilia with sentences.”