John Abbott students are panellists for a prestigious literary prize in France

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For the first time since its inception in 2016, a prestigious French literary prize judged by students, the Prix Femina des lycéens, includes participation from a school outside France. Eight students from John Abbott College set off to Normandy last Saturday for a weeklong trip to sit as judges on the panel.

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“It’s very French,” said Daniel Rondeau, a French teacher at John Abbott who is accompanying the students, comparing it to the Pulitzer Prize in the world of French literature. “I think the surprise is more here in Quebec, that an English school is participating.” 

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The award is fashioned after the Prix Femina, a French literary prize established in 1904 in which the winning title is picked by an all-female jury. While that award was created as a reaction to the Prix Goncourt, which traditionally had been decided by male jurors, the Femina des lycéens is not exclusively for female students.

“There are all these efforts with Bill 96 to limit the amount of people who will come into English schools, but it just goes to show that even in an English school, you can still go ahead and be enriched with the French language,” said Andrea Sanchez Benitez, one of the students participating from the anglophone CEGEP. “It’s just a question of being willing to do it.”

Over the course of two months, about 600 students from 18 participating schools read all 10 books selected by the Femina academy, which Rondeau says are considered to be “the most outstanding works published in France of the last year.” The student jury then debates which book should win over the course of a week. Last year, Ce que je sais de toi by Quebec author Éric Chacour was the winning title. 

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Of the eight John Abbott students, only two are culturally francophone. 

Sanchez Benitez, who studies commerce at John Abbott, is fluently trilingual. “I speak mostly Spanish at home. I went to French school my whole life — being a second-generation immigrant, I had to go to French school,” she said, adding that English-language media and John Abbott have been her main points of exposure to English. 

While her studies focus on commerce and business, her passions are reading and writing. Sanchez Benitez participated in the Prix Goncourt des lycéens panel last year and will take part in the Canadian Prix littéraire des collégien(ne)s this winter, which means she will read at least 36 French books over the course of the year. 

This month, her poem Entre deux rives un corps tiède won first prize in a French-language poetry competition at John Abbott; it will be published in the Recueil intercollégial de poésie. She said the poem is about “finding an identity through language.”

“When I go back to Mexico, I’m too ‘whitewashed,’ but here it’s like, ‘You’re still an immigrant.’ It’s kind of like, which one am I?” said Sanchez Benitez.

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Despite the Quebec government’s measures affecting English-language schools, Rondeau said he “doesn’t feel that language tension around,” noting that over 40 per cent of John Abbott students come from French secondary schools. “It’s quite the mix. It’s representing Montreal.”

Ariane Bessette, another French teacher at John Abbott, highlighted that participation in the literary prize is not graded. “It’s for fun, so there’s no pressure around French.”

Sanchez Benitez said she has felt encouraged by Bessette and Rondeau to explore her love of the French language at John Abbott. “There’s a bunch of activities done within the English school that encourage people to go explore new activities within the French language.” 

She says this type of positive support should be the focus of the Immigration, Francization and Integration Ministry and the Education Ministry, rather than focusing on issues such as enrolment caps for English CEGEPs.

“They should focus on being more encouraging within their schools.”

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