Polina Panassenko has been awarded the 2026 Le Monde Literary Prize for her novel À voix haute, published by L'Olivier. The award, established in 2013, honors a francophone novel from the literary season based on its literary merit and its perspective on the world. The ceremony took place on September 3, 2026, at the Hôtel de Massa in Paris, which is the headquarters of the Société des gens de lettres, a French literary organization. Panassenko, born in 1989 in Russia and who moved to France as a child, dedicated her second novel to the journey of a young woman who grew up between two countries. The protagonist, who wants to become an actress, joins the Moscow State Theatre School in the early 2010s. Reconnecting with her "mother country," she uncovers the silences surrounding national and family history, and traces the fate of her great-great-grandfather, a victim of Stalinism. Panassenko previously gained attention with Tenir sa langue (L'Olivier, 2022), which won the 2023 Prix littéraire de la Porte Dorée. À voix haute was selected from ten francophone novels for the 2026 edition of the prize, including Le Pays des étés by Pierre Adrian (Gallimard), Tombeau de Parsifal by Dimitri Bortnikov (Rivages), Championne by Nina Bouraoui (JC Lattès), Chronique d'un royaume perdu by Ananda Devi (Grasset), Zones à défendre by Bénédicte Dupré la Tour (Flammarion), Le Livre des souterrains by Phœbe Hadjimarkos Clarke (Sous-sol), La Croix percée by Siméon Lerouge (Tristram), Mais que fait ce sang sur le pull de Jennifer ? by Lucie Rico (P.O.L), and Shanghai, cinq heures quarante by Ada Walter (Calmann-Lévy). The prize is awarded by a jury of thirteen journalists from different sections of Le Monde, presided over by Jérôme Fenoglio, editor-in-chief of Le Monde, and including Jean Birnbaum, Amaury da Cunha, Emmanuel Davidenkoff, Solenn de Royer, Zineb Dryef, Gaëlle Dupont, Clara Georges, Florent Georgesco, Lanwenn Huon, Raphaëlle Leyris, Raphaëlle Rérolle, and Nicolas Weill. The prize does not carry a monetary value but provides significant exposure for the winning novel at the beginning of the autumn literary season. The Le Monde Literary Prize, created in 2013, was first awarded to Yasmina Reza for Heureux les heureux (Flammarion). Past recipients include Emmanuel Carrère, Agnès Desarthe, Alice Zeniter, Jérôme Ferrari, Cécile Coulon, Neige Sinno, and Mathieu Belezi. In 2025, the prize was awarded to Laurent Mauvignier for La Maison vide (Éditions de Minuit), which later won the Prix Goncourt.