American Library in Paris Book Award was created in 2013 with a donation from the Florence Gould Foundation. It is awarded each November with a remunerative prize of $5,000 to "a work written originally in English that deepens and stimulates our understanding of France or the French.." The

American Library in Paris The American Library in Paris is the largest English-language lending library on the European mainland. It operates as an independent, non-profit cultural association in France incorporated under the laws of Delaware. Library members have access ...

"was founded and originally run by American expatriates in Paris in 1920, with books that had been sent by American libraries to soldiers fighting in World War I."

Honorees

2013

The shortlist was announced in September, and the winner in December 2013. Winner:

Fredrik Logevall Fredrik Logevall is a Swedish-American historian and educator at Harvard University, where he is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of history in the Harvard Faculty ...

, '' Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam'' Shortlist: *

Simon van Booy Simon Van Booy (born 1975) is an Anglo-American writer, currently living in the United States. His short story collection, ''Love Begins in Winter'', won the 2009 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Fiction Simon Van Booy has writt ...

, ''The Illusion of Separateness'' *Alex Danchev, ''Cezanne: A Life'' (about

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

) * Tom Reiss, '' The Black Count: Glory, Revolution, Betrayal, and the Real Count of Monte Cristo'' *

Marilyn Yalom Marilyn Yalom (March 10, 1932 – November 20, 2019) was a feminist author and historian. She was a senior scholar at the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University, and a professor of French. She served as the institute's dire ...

, ''How the French Invented Love'' Jury:

Diane Johnson Diane Johnson (born Diane Lain, April 28, 1934), is an American novelist and essayist whose satirical novels often feature American heroines living abroad in contemporary France. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for her novel ''Persian ...

Adam Gopnik Adam Gopnik (born August 24, 1956) is an American writer and essayist. He is best known as a staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' to which he has contributed non-fiction, fiction, memoir, and criticism since 1986. He is the author of nine books ...

and

Julian Barnes Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with '' The Sense of an Ending'', having been shortlisted three times previously with ''Flaubert's Parrot'', '' England, England'', and ''Ar ...

2014

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner in November 2014. Winner: Robert Harris, '' An Officer and a Spy'' Shortlist: *Jonathan Beckman, ''How to Ruin a Queen: Marie Antoinette, the Stolen Diamonds and the Scandal that Shook the French Throne'' *Frederick Brown, ''The Embrace of Unreason: France 1914 - 1940'' *

Sean B. Carroll Sean B. Carroll (born September 17, 1960) is an American evolutionary developmental biologist, author, educator and executive producer. He is a distinguished university professor at the University of Maryland and professor emeritus of molecul ...

, ''Brave Genius: A Scientist, a Philosopher, and their Daring Adventures from the French Resistance to the Nobel Prize'' *Philip Dwyer, ''Citizen Emperor: Napoleon in Power 1799 - 1815'' *

Francine Prose Francine Prose (born April 1, 1947) is an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and critic. She is a visiting professor of literature at Bard College, and was formerly president of PEN American Center. Life and career Born in Brookl ...

, ''Lovers at the Chameleon Club, Paris 1932'' Jury: Alice Kaplan,

Sebastian Faulks Sebastian Charles Faulks (born 20 April 1953) is a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – ''The Girl at the Lion d'Or'', '' Birdsong'' and '' Charlotte Gray''. He has also pub ...

, and

Pierre Assouline Pierre Assouline (born 17 April 1953) is a French writer and journalist. He was born in Casablanca, Morocco to a Jewish family. He has published several novels and biographies, and also contributes articles for the print media and broadcasts f ...

2015

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner was announced 6 November 2015. Winner: Laura Auricchio, ''The Marquis: Lafayette Reconsidered'' Shortlist: * Nancy L. Green, ''The Other Americans in Paris: Businessmen, Countesses, Wayward Youth 1880-1941'' * Richard C. Keller, ''Fatal Isolation: The Devastating Paris Heat Wave of 2003'' * Sue Roe, ''In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse, and Modernism in Paris, 1900-1910'' * Ronald Rosbottom, ''When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation 1940-1944'' Jury:

Laura Furman Laura Furman (born 1945) is an American author whose work has appeared in ''The New Yorker,'' ''Mirabella,'' ''Ploughshares'', ''Southwest Review, Yale Review, and elsewhere'. Biography Furman was born in New York City and attended Hunter College ...

Lily Tuck Lily Tuck (born October 10, 1938) is an American novelist and short story writer whose novel ''The News from Paraguay'' won the 2004 National Book Award for Fiction.Fredrik Logevall Fredrik Logevall is a Swedish-American historian and educator at Harvard University, where he is the Laurence D. Belfer Professor of International Affairs at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and professor of history in the Harvard Faculty ...

2016

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner was announced on 3 November 2016. Winner: Ethan B. Katz, ''The Burdens of Brotherhood: Jews and Muslims from North Africa to France'' Shortlist: * Jo Baker, ''A Country Road, A Tree'' * Sarah Bakewell, ''At the Existentialist Café: Freedom, Being, and Apricot Cocktails'' * Julie Barlow and

Jean-Benoît Nadeau Jean-Benoît Nadeau (born in 1964) is a Canadian author, journalist, and lecturer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs. He is the author of ''The Bonjour Effect'' and '' Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong'' which he co-wrote ...

, ''The Bonjour Effect: The Secret Codes of French Conversation Revealed'' *

David Drake David A. Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now a writer in the military science fiction genre. Biography Drake graduated Phi ...

, ''Paris at War: 1939-1944'' *

Lucy Sante Lucy Sante (formerly Luc Sante; born May 25, 1954) is a Belgium-born American writer, critic, and artist. She is a frequent contributor to ''The New York Review of Books''. Her books include '' Low Life: Lures and Snares of Old New York'' (1991) ...

, ''The Other Paris'' Jury: Laura Auricchio, Robert Harris, Robert O. Paxton

2017

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner was announced on 3 November 2017. Winner:

David Bellos David Bellos (born 1945) is an English-born translator and biographer. Bellos is Meredith Howland Pyne Professor of French Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature at Princeton University in the United States. He was director of Princeton ...

, ''The Novel of the Century: The Extraordinary Adventure of'' Les Misérables Shortlist: * David McAninch, ''Duck Season: Eating, Drinking, and Other Misadventures in Gascony, France's Last Best Place'' *

Adam Gidwitz Adam Gidwitz (born February 14, 1982) is the author of the best selling children's books ''A Tale Dark and Grimm'' (2010), ''In a Glass Grimmly'' (2012), and ''The Grimm Conclusion'' (2013), all published by Dutton Books for Young Readers, an im ...

, ''The Inquisitor's Tale: or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog'' * Ross King, ''Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies'' * Nadja Spiegelman, ''I'm Supposed to Protect You From All This: A Memoir'' * Susan Rubin Suleiman, ''The Némirovksy Question: The Life, Death, and Legacy of a Jewish Writer in Twentieth-Century France'' Jury:

Bruno Racine Bruno Racine (born 17 December 1951 in Paris) is a French civil servant and writer. Early life and education Racine is the son of Pierre Racine (a conseiller d'État) and Edwina Morgulis, Bruno Racine was born in Paris. He studied at the Éc ...

Stacy Schiff Stacy Madeleine Schiff (born October 26, 1961) is an American former editor, essayist, and author of five biography, biographies. Her biography of Vera Nabokov won the 2000 Pulitzer Prize in biography. Schiff has also written biographies of Frenc ...

2018

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner was announced on 8 November 2018. Winner: Julian Jackson, ''A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle'' Shortlist *

Adam Begley Adam C. Begley (born 1959 in Boston, Massachusetts) is an American freelance writer, and was the books editor for ''The New York Observer'' from 1996 to 2009. Begley is the son of Sally (Higginson) and novelist Louis Begley. He graduated from Har ...

, ''The Great Nadar: The Man Behind the Camera'' *

Bijan Omrani Bijan Omrani is a British historian, journalist, teacher, barrister and author of Persian descent. His work ranges from Classical scholarship to current affairs across Asia. Early life and education Omrani was born in York, England, in 1979. ...

, ''Caesar’s Footprints: A Cultural Excursion to Ancient France: Journeys Through Roman Gaul'' *

Rupert Thomson Rupert Thomson, FRSL (born November 5, 1955) is an English writer. He is the author of thirteen critically acclaimed novels and an award-winning memoir. He has lived in many cities around the world, including Athens, Berlin, New York, Sydney, L ...

, ''Never Anyone But You'' * Caroline Weber, ''Proust’s Duchess: How Three Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-Siècle Paris'' Jury:

, and

2019

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner was announced on 7 November 2019. Winner: Marc Weitzmann, ''Hate: The Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism in France'' (and What it Means for Us) Shortlist * Edward Carey, ''Little: A Novel'' *Andrew S. Curran, ''Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely'' * David Elliott, ''Voices: The Final Hours of Joan of Arc'' *Stéphane Hénaut and Jeni Mitchell, ''A Bite-Sized History of France: Gastronomic Tales of Revolution, War, and Enlightenment'' *

Julie Orringer Julie Orringer (born June 12, 1973) is an American writer and lecturer. She attended Cornell University and the Iowa Writer's Workshop, and was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She was born in Miami, Florida and now lives in Brooklyn with ...

, ''The Flight Portfolio: A Novel'' Jury: Alice Kaplan,

Thomas Chatterton Williams Thomas Chatterton Williams (born March 26, 1981) is an American cultural critic and author.Pamela Druckerman Pamela Druckerman is an American-French writer and journalist living in Paris, France. In fall 2013, she became a contributing opinion writer for ''The New York Times International Edition''. Education and early life Pamela Druckerman grew up in ...

''Coups de coeur'' In addition to the six shortlisted titles, the screening committee selected the following five books as worthy of special recognition:
Mark Braude
''The Invisible Emperor: Napoleon on Elba from Exile to Escape'' * Peter Caddick-Adams, ''Sand and Steel: The D-Day Invasion and the Liberation of France''
Christopher L. Miller
''Impostors: Literary Hoaxes and Cultural Authenticity''
Whitney Scharer
''The Age of Light: A Novel'' *

Christopher Tilghman Christopher Tilghman is an American novelist and short story writer. Life He graduated from Yale University. He served three years in the Navy. He worked at a sawmill in New Hampshire, moved back to Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was a corp ...

, ''Thomas and Beal in the Midi''

2020

The shortlist was announced in July, and the winner was announced on 14 January 2021. Winner: Maggie Paxson, ''The Plateau'' Shortlist *

Bill Buford Bill Buford (born 1954) is an American author and journalist. Buford is the author of the books ''Among the Thugs'' and ''Heat: An Amateur's Adventures as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscan ...

, ''Dirt: Adventures in Lyon as a Chef in Training, Father, and Sleuth Looking for the Secret of French Cooking'' * James Gardner, ''The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World’s Most Famous Museum'' * Caitlin Horrocks, ''The Vexations: A Novel'' * Rachel Mesch, ''Before Trans: Three Gender Stories from Nineteenth-Century France'' * Maurice Samuels, ''The Betrayal of the Duchess: The Scandal That Unmade the Bourbon Monarchy and Made France Modern'' Jury: Ethan Katz, Rachel Donadio, and Jake Lamar

2021

The shortlist was announced in July 2021 , and the winner was announced on 20 January 2022. Winner:

Sudhir Hazareesingh Sudhir Hazareesingh (18 October 1961) is a British-Mauritian historian. He has been a fellow and Tutor in Politics at Balliol College, Oxford since 1990. Most of his work relates to modern political history from 1850; including the history ...

, ''Black Spartacus:'' ''The Epic Life of Toussaint Louverture'' Shortlist * Michaela Carter, ''Leonora in the Morning Light'' *

Edmund de Waal Edmund Arthur Lowndes de Waal, (born 10 September 1964) is a contemporary English artist, master potter and author. He is known for his large-scale installations of porcelain vessels often created in response to collections and archives or t ...

, ''Letters to Camondo'' *

Emma Rothschild Emma Georgina Rothschild (born 16 May 1948) is a British Economic history, economic historian, a professor of history at Harvard University. She is director of the Joint Centre for History and Economics at Harvard, and an honorary Professor of H ...

, An ''Infinite History: The Story of a Family in France over Three Centuries'' *

Jane Smiley Jane Smiley (born September 26, 1949) is an American novelist. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1992 for her novel '' A Thousand Acres'' (1991). Biography Born in Los Angeles, California, Smiley grew up in Webster Groves, Missouri, a s ...

, ''Perestroika in Paris'' Jury:

Lauren Collins Lauren Felice Collins (born August 29, 1986) is a Canadian actress, best known for portraying Paige Michalchuk on '' Degrassi: The Next Generation''. She has also had supporting roles in the films ''Take the Lead'' (2006) and ''Charlie Bartlett' ...

, Julian Jackson,

Dinaw Mengestu Dinaw Mengestu (ዲናው መንግስቱ) (born 30 June 1978) is an Ethiopian-American novelist and writer. In addition to three novels, he has written for '' Rolling Stone'' on the war in Darfur, and for '' Jane Magazine'' on the conflict in no ...

, and Maggie Paxson

2022

The shortlist was announced in July 2022, and the winner was announced on 3 November 2022. Winner:

Graham Robb Graham Macdonald Robb FRSL (born 2 June 1958, Manchester) is a British author and critic specialising in French literature. Biography Born at Manchester, Robb attended the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, before going up to Exeter College, Ox ...

, ''France: An Adventure History'' Shortlist * Amanda Bestor-Siegal, ''The Caretakers, A Novel'' *

Maud Casey Maud Casey is an American novelist, and professor of creative writing at University of Maryland, College Park. Life She is the daughter of novelist John Casey. She graduated from University of Arizona with an M.F.A. She won a Guggenheim Fell ...

, ''City of Incurable Women'' * J.P. Daughton,
In the Forest of No Joy: The Congo-Océan Railroad and the Tragedy of French Colonialism
' * Peter Watson, ''The French Mind: 400 Years of Romance, Revolution and Renewal'' Jury:

Charles Trueheart Charles Trueheart (born September 5, 1951) is an American writer and former newspaper correspondent and non-profit executive. He was a reporter for '' The Washington Post'' from 1986 to 2000 and director of the American Library in Paris from 200 ...

(chair),

Thomas Chatterton Williams Thomas Chatterton Williams (born March 26, 1981) is an American cultural critic and author.American Library in Paris Book Award
official website 2013 establishments in France Awards established in 2013 French literary awards