Franco-Palestinian writer Karim Kattan wins Wepler-Fondation La Poste literary prize, Digi Mart USA News (France): Franco-Palestinian writer Karim Kattan was awarded the Wepler-Fondation La Poste literary prize in France on Monday for his novel Septentrionale, published by the independent publisher Elyzad, which is based in Tunisia.
Kattan, 37, was born in Jerusalem and grew up in Bethlehem in the West Bank, where his family is from. After studying at the French high school in Jerusalem, he moved to France, where he obtained citizenship, and studied cinema and English.
Septentrionale, his third novel, was released in August. It is a feverish road movie set in an unspecified country “gripped by apocalypse,” where Joseph and Maryam meet while fleeing.
The book had already won the 2026 Les Inrockuptibles prize for French novels.
The novel has been translated into about ten languages. Elyzad, founded in Tunisia in 2005 to “give voice to novelists from the South,” publishes writers from Lebanon, Morocco, Togo and France.
The prize, awarded by the Parisian café Le Wepler and the Fondation La Poste, aims to recognize “novelistic risk-taking and a demanding style.” The winner receives 10,000 euros.
The jury, which includes booksellers, also gave a special prize to Pute vierge (Inculte/Actes Sud) by Dominique Sigaud, described as “a prodigiously unclassifiable literary UFO.”
