Inalco competition prize for multilingual short stories

Launched in 2019, the Plurilingual Short Story Competition is a project supported by Inalco's Student Success department. It is open to the general public and to all French-speaking students enrolled at an institution for the current year, and rewards 3 to 12 original, unpublished plurilingual short stories, as well as one work of plurilingual digital literature.
Concours Inalco de la nouvelle plurilingue 2025
Concours Inalco de la nouvelle plurilingue 2025 © Image générée par intelligence artificielle‎

How can we convey this dialogue of languages - which is also the dialogue of everyday life in our globalized world - in a literary text? It's this tension between French and other languages, those that are antipodes to it (such as the Oriental, African and Oceanic languages taught at Inalco) as well as those closest to it, but also between so-called "standard" or "reference" French and its social and geographical varieties (verlan, joual, Creole languages, nouchi, Marseillais, etc.) that we propose you explore in the Inalco Plurilingual Short Story Competition. This competition imposes the following linguistic constraint: use at least one other language or variety of French in addition to so-called "standard" French.

Because of its openness to the world (over a hundred languages are taught here, including many so-called "rare" and minority languages), no venue lends itself better than Inalco to hosting such a competition. The fact that the competition is part of the OIF's Langues en dialogue program, which promotes a multilingual Francophonie, reinforces this linguistic openness to French-speaking areas, where French comes in a wide variety of forms that are all too often overlooked. So it's also this internal plurilingualism of languages, languages whose homogeneity is only factitious, and this rustling of language in the French-speaking and digital space that this competition wants to promote through your writings, particularly for French, whose singularity masks its diversity.

Isabelle Cros, Jury President

Jury composition

The jury, made up of outside personalities, teaching-research and administrative staff, as well as Inalco students, is formed by the Concours de la nouvelle plurilingue organizing committee. A pre-jury selects the best texts for the two-round competition; the Grand Jury, made up among others of the writer sponsors and personalities from the world of books or the media, representatives of Inalco and the publisher of Éditions Tangentielles, selects the three prizewinners and possibly the special mention (coup de coeur du Grand Jury).

The following prizes are awarded

  • 1st prize, culture voucher worth €500
  • 2nd prize, culture voucher worth €200
  • 3rd prize, culture voucher worth €100
  • Special prize InCIAM "digital writing", culture voucher worth €400 + promotion and distribution of the work online and in the Editions Tangentielles book, as well as at various events linked to the competition

A Grand Jury Coup de Coeur is possible, with a purely honorary dimension, and no financial reward.
The best short stories (between 3 and 12 short stories, depending on the Grand Jury's choice) will also be published by Editions Tangentielles with editorial support, and their authors will be invited to take part in a writing workshop led by one of the competition's sponsors or another writing specialist.

Edition 2024: Animal languages
Edition 2022 : Languages in the making
Edition 2021 : Languages in danger
Edition 2020 : Languages in dialogue
CONSULT THE REGULATIONS
Inalco Multilingual Short Story Competition - Rules
CONTACT

Marielle ANSELMO

marielle.anselmo@inalco.fr

CONTACT

CONCOURS INALCO DE LA NOUVELLE PLURILINGUE

contact@concoursdelanouvelleplurilingue.com