Renée Vivien Prize

The Prix Renée Vivien is an annual French literary prize which is awarded to poets who write in French. Dedicated to the British poet Renée Vivien, the eponymous prize was first initiated in 1935, and continued intermittently by three different patrons, each with their own vision. First patron was Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, followed by Natalie Clifford Barney in 1949 then more latterly and currently ongoing from 1994 with Claude Evrard. From each patron, the naming of the award after Renée Vivien was an act of remembrance. Nonetheless, women's poetry, feminist literature and the memories of romantic entanglement with the honoured poet have been inspiring on the first two patrons, who were more alike in their approach to awarding poets, while the heritage of Renée Vivien's style in contemporary poetry interested more Claude Evrard.

The initial prize was an annual French literary prize awarded in honour of the poet Renée Vivien, intended to give encouragement to aspiring French language women poets, along with a pecuniary endowment. This award was founded on July 23, 1935, at the initiative of Baroness Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, one of Renée Vivien's renowned lovers, with whom she had written and published poetry under a single pen name: Paule Riversdale. From the outset, the Société des gens de lettres assumed responsibility for awarding the prize. First awarded in 1936, the recent poetry prize was discontinued in 1939 after three award ceremonies, under imprecise circumstances as the Nazi regime took over in Europe.

Two years after the death of Hélène de Zuylen de Nyevelt de Haar, the Renée Vivien Prize was restored in 1949 with a financial grant and maintained for several years under the authority of the Société des gens de lettres by Natalie Clifford Barney who took on the chairmanship of the jury in 1950. The revived literary prize continued to be awarded without any consideration to nationality to women who had published one or more volumes of French verse and allowed Natalie Clifford Barney to memorialise the life and works of Renée Vivien. After more than a decade of awarding poetry and providing monetary grants for women poets, the Prix Renée Vivien of the Société des gens de lettres was discontinued in 1962.

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