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Enter the Inalco Multilingual Short Story Competition until February 3, 2026
The competition is open to the general public and to all French-speaking students under the age of 35 who are enrolled in an institution for the current year. Each year, it rewards original, as yet unpublished multilingual short stories, as well as a work of multilingual digital literature.
Edition 2026: Languages in networks
For the sixth edition of the competition, the theme "Languages in networks" has been chosen. From social networks to networks of resistance, from AI and its neural networks to networks of influence or transport... This broad theme invites us to think about the links that are woven between languages, to what they share, knot and untie, to everything that allows us not to think of them as isolated, lonely, but alive with all these connections that bind and link them.
The texts (short stories of 5,000 to 15,000 characters) must be written in French, but will necessarily involve, even occasionally, a language other than standard French. All languages and linguistic varieties are accepted. Fabricated and invented languages are permitted.
The deadline for submissions of texts and digital creations has been set for February 3, 2026. To find out more about how to enter and read the rules, visit the competition website.
Schedule
- Until February 3, 2026 at 11:59 pm (Paris time): submission of the short story or digital work online
- April 16, 2026 evening: announcement of results and prize-giving ceremony at Inalco (Paris)
- 2026-2027: publication of short stories by Éditions Tangentielles
Gaël Octavia, patron of the 6th edition of the competition
A word from the patron
As a reader, I've been nourished my whole life by short stories from all horizons: Zweig and Maupassant, García Marquez and Gogol, Yourcenar and Pushkin, Adichie and Ōe, Munro and Adiga... As an author, I devote an idyllic love to this literary genre, an ideal passion, an assiduous but never weary frequentation. I have no shortage of tender words for it: my little jewel, my delight, my flame... For the short story knows how to be voluptuous or fiery, it is of honey, rock, iron or fire.
Gaël Octavia
For the writer, the short story is a laboratory experiment. With it, you can dare anything. It's an undertaking that's never in vain, as much for its objective - the final text - as for its gymnastics. So I'm particularly delighted to be the patron of this Inalco Multilingual Short Story Competition, which is open to young authors from all over the world. To all of you, I have only one thing to say: write short stories! You won't regret it!
Biography
Gaël Octavia was born in Fort-de-France in 1977. A jack-of-all-trades, she writes novels, theater, short stories, poetry, screenplays, paints and directs short films. Her texts are marked by the Martinique society in which she grew up, and tackle universal themes such as the family, identity, the female condition, power, migrants... They have been translated into English, Italian, Romanian, Czech.
Her plays have been read and performed in Martinique, Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Europe, the USA, Africa, Reunion... Her first novel, La fin de Mame Baby (Gallimard), won the Prix Wepler, special mention, in 2017. Her collection L'étrangeté de Mathilde T. (Gallimard) was awarded the Goncourt de la nouvelle 2025.
How to enter:
This international competition is open to the general public and to all French-speaking students, aged under 35 and enrolled in an institution for the year 2025-2026 in France, the French-speaking world and beyond.
Two options are available for entering:
- Individual short story in classic text format: a short story written in French but necessarily involving, even punctually, one or more other languages than standard French.
- Possibly collective digital work ("digital writing" prize): for multilingual digital texts, playing on the multimodality offered by technological supports.
To take part, you need to submit your work online before February 3, 2026, 11:59 pm (Paris time). See submission procedures and writing constraints on the competition website.
Four prizes up for grabs
- 1st prize: €500
- 2nd prize: €200
- 3rd prize: €100
- "Digital writing" prize: 400 € + promotion and distribution of the work online as well as in the Editions Tangentielles book and at various events linked to the competition
The best short stories selected by the final jury, between 3 and 12 short stories, depending on the year, are published at Editions Tangentielles with editorial support. Their authors are invited to take part in a workshop led by one of the competition's sponsors or by a speaker specializing in creative writing, in order to prepare the editing and publication of their text.
Composition of the jury
The jury, made up of outside personalities, teaching-research and administrative staff, as well as Inalco students, is constituted by the Concours de la nouvelle plurilingue organizing committee. A first jury pre-selects the best texts; the final jury, made up among others of the writers sponsoring the competition, as well as personalities from the book world, representatives of Inalco and Éditions Tangentielles, chooses the three winners of the prize list and may award a special mention (the Grand Jury's coup de coeur, with no award other than honorary).
