Members of the jury Squirelito, Marie Françoise Leclère, Erik Orsenna, Philippe Taquet et Kaouther Adimi

In 1960, publicity genius Marcel Bleustein Blanchet created Fondation de la Vocation in order to help the young talented who needed a little push. Almost sixty years later, 1564 young people have been helped by this foundation in science, music, technology, the art and literature. It is the first prize giving ceremony of the “rentrée” and a very important one since famous French writers have been laureate over the years. The prize goes to under 30 year olds.

The poetry prize was won by 23 year old, Célestin de Meuus

The poetry prize has been awarded since 1984 and it went this year to a brilliant and very politically engaged young writer from Brussels who wrote “Cadastres”. He talked about poetry as “a way of erasing frontiers”. It was wonderful to see how passionate he was by his art.

Christophe Ono-di-Biot, Alain Germain and Anne de La Baume hand the award to Boris Bergmann

The literary prize was given to Boris Bergmann for “Nage Libre“, a novel which describes the friendship of two young men from the projects who liberate themselves through swimming and desire. He is published by Calmann Lévy. The author wrote his first novel, “Viens là que je te tue ma belle” (Come here so I kill you my beauty) at 15, and some members of the jury had read it at the time, eleven years ago. Both books are very socially inclined and go along the political trends of the time.

Next December, the awards for music, technology, science, architecture, cinema, etc… will also be awarded. And if you are interested in sponsoring a young genius, go on the website and follow the careers of all former laureates…It is very impressive.