The seventh edition of the Prix Laurence, a literary competition for young authors in Luxembourg and beyond, will be one of the highlights of the program of the Commune of Bettembourg within the framework of its participation in Esch 2022. Yes, you read it right – Esch-sur-Alzette in Luxembourg, same as Kaunas, will be the European Capital of Culture next year. We had the privilege to talk more about the competition with the Mayor of Bettembourg, Mr Laurent Zeimet.
What was the reasoning behind launching the first Prix Laurence? Was it a lack of young voices in the literature field of Luxembourg?
The Prix Laurence literary competition for young authors is part of the annual LiteraTour festival organized since 2013 by the municipality of Bettembourg (L). To prepare the early editions of the LiteraTour festival, we organized workshops and focus groups with the young generation of our municipality. The results clearly showed that a strong interest in literature and writing existed within this part of the population. And the success proved us correct: since the first edition of the Prix Laurence in 2015, 801 texts have been submitted by 446 authors!
How has the contest grown? What are your primary marketing resources – how do you reach out to talented kids?
Each year, we see approximately the same number of participants in the competition. In 2020, for instance, 76 young talents participated with 113 texts. We collaborate mainly with the high schools from Luxembourg and the Greater Region (parts of Belgium, Germany and France). The teachers are pretty enthusiastic about motivating their students to participate. We promote the competition over our social media channels, on national radio stations, etc. Some of our laureates have already published books with publishing houses, which also contributes to the success of the competition.
PRIX LAURENCE itself is an older initiative than Esch2022. What important reasons did you foresee joining this initiative? Were there any doubts, i.e., maybe it’s better to stay independent? And what are the bonus values the cultural capital brought into the competition?
We consider the organization of the 2022 edition of the Prix Laurence in the framework of Esch2022 to be a unique chance to elevate the competition to a European level – and to enable a cultural exchange across borders in the spirit of the Esch 2022’s guiding principles: Remix Europe and Remix culture.In addition, we will invite all finalists aged 18 to 26 years to Bettembourg (L) for a five-day author’s residency where creative workshops, tourist visits and exchanges will even further enhance the idea of Remix.
Is it the first international edition of the competition? Why were particularly these countries invited to participate? Have you already received entries from abroad?
All previous editions of the Prix Laurence were targeting young authors from Luxembourg and the Greater Region. So indeed, the 2022 edition will be the first international one. The organizers of Esch 2022 have approached us last year and told us about the Kaunas literature week organized by their partner city Kaunas 2022. Therefore, we thought the Prix Laurence and the Kaunas literature week would be a perfect match. Furthermore, the cities of Flaibano (I) and Valpaços (P) are the twin cities of Bettembourg since 1989, respectively 1990. Since our scope was an international edition, it was only natural to invite our partner cities as well.
How can success in this competition influence the future career of a young writer? Do you have such success stories you can tell us about? Have the laureates established themselves in the Lux literary scene?
We offer young talents a platform to come out as writers, to perform in front of an audience and thus to shape themselves. Therefore, we encourage the young generation. The texts of all the finalists and laureates are published every year in an anthology, and so the young people have a high quality « business card ». Also, we always involve our discovered talents in events organized by the municipality of Bettembourg.
The contest itself is pretty open, accepting creative words of all kinds, including rap. Was it like this from the beginning, or do you expand the fields according to the changing of cultural climate?
Since the first edition of the Prix Laurence, we wanted to let young people express themselves freely on important subjects and in the genre that they like the most, according to our motto “No limits to your creativity and imagination”. For the 2022 edition, as we will be evolving within the framework of Esch 2022, we invite young people to write about the vision of Esch 2022, namely the European idea, Remix Europe, Remix Yourself and digitalization.
Who makes up the jury of the competition? Does the jury change every year?
The current jury members have been on board since the first edition of the competition and have never changed. For the 2022 edition, we have only increased their number as we widened the scope of the competition to our three partner cities. The jury members reflect today’s society as they come from different sectors: educational, publishing, social, authors, cultural editors, so it is a very balanced jury.
A local jury in Lithuania, Italy and Portugal will make the pre-selection in the participating countries and submit their choice to the Prix Laurence jury, who will select the finalists.
What are the current reading trends in your country, if one can call them trends?
The book market in Luxembourg is strongly influenced by the international book market due to the immense linguistic diversity in Luxembourg. Therefore, it is very difficult to speak of typical Luxembourgish trends.
The LiteraTour festival, as one of the parts of the programme of Esch 2022, is presented as follows: “The LiteraTour offers, after a long time, an opportunity to meet and enjoy reading together. In recent months, reading has certainly been an opportunity to come from home to new thoughts, to travel, to discover.”. So, is it a pandemic-adjusted festival? What are its most significant ambitions and ideas for 2022, when maybe we can come and participate?
Due to the pandemic, the finals of the Prix Laurence 2020, which generally take place in April, were postponed to September 2020. However, despite the circumstances, the finalists and their families were offered a lively and authentic event.
For the 2022 edition, we are in the process of working out various scenarios in order to be able to hold all events in a Corona-compatible manner, via streaming, etc.
We are in a positive mood and full of hope that we will be able to hold all events around the Prix Laurence again in the pre-pandemic proven formula. Especially because the exchange should take place on a European and international level, which means for us to travel, to meet each other, to discuss and debate together, and to deepen our diversity… All of which would not be possible with the current social distancing measures.
The call for participation was launched on April 24, 2021. It is extended to young people from the Greater Region (D-B-F), Kaunas, the partner city of Esch 2022, and the partner municipalities of Bettembourg, namely Valpaços in Portugal and Flaibano in Italy.
Accordingly, young people will be able to submit their literary creations in seven languages: Luxembourgish, German, French, English, Lithuanian, Portuguese and Italian.
Participants have until 31 October 2021 to submit their unpublished contributions in two age categories, 12-17 and 18-26 years. Participation is via the website www.prixlaurence.lu.
