A large audience attended the Armand Lunel Prize 2014 award ceremony, organized at the cultural bookstore “Scripta Manent” in Monaco.
In the presence of Mr. Jean-Charles Curau, Director of Cultural Affairs of Monaco, the Club’s Secretary General, Mr. Jean-Yves Giraudon, spoke to illustrate the P.E.N. Club and its history and introduced Mr. Daniel Augendre, the 2014 prize winner.
The aim of this Prize is to allow those who wish to showcase their writing talent through the creation of a short story that must be unpublished and written in French.
A jury composed of 5 P.E.N. Club members was responsible for selecting the winner from those who submitted their works. Out of a total of 14 texts of good, even excellent quality, there were detective stories, science fiction, autobiographical novels, and ethnographic narratives.
However, the deliberations were without much suspense, as Mr. Augendre’s short story almost unanimously stood out among the jury members, especially given that his writing excels in describing settings and characters as well as conveying emotions, thanks to a highly mastered language in all areas: particularly an impeccable vocabulary, syntax, and spelling!
The short story, titled ‘Louis Maรฎtre-Berger,’ according to Mr. Giraudon “falls within the ‘Provenรงal’ literary tradition, in the line of Pagnol, Daudet, and especially Giono. One might even think of our dear Armand Lunel, although his works are rather set in an urban Provenรงal framework.”
In his speech, Mr. Augendre, originally from Saint Raphael, explained that he wanted to express “his passion for the Provenรงal region and particularly the transhumance, its characters, its places, especially those very close to Aix-en-Provence.”
Mr. Augendre received from Mr. Jessula, a P.E.N. Club member, two works by his grandfather Armand Lunel.
The Treasurer of the Pen Club, Mr. Jean-Luc Delcroix, awarded Mr. Augendre 200 euros worth of gift cards from FNAC.
His travel and accommodation were also covered, as well as numerous copies of the 2014 edition of the Pen Club Journal featuring his short story, “Louis Maรฎtre-Berger.”
