Yannick Haenel

Yannick Haenel (born 1967, Rennes) is a French writer, cofounder of the literary magazine Ligne de risque.

The son of a soldier, Yannick Haenel studied at the Prytanée National Militaire at La Flèche.

From 1997, he codirected the magazine Ligne de risque with François Meyronnis.

Until 2005 he was a teacher of French at lycée La Bruyère in Versailles.

He published several novels, including Introduction à la mort française and Évoluer parmi les avalanches, as well as an essay about the tapestries of The Lady and the Unicorn: À mon seul désir.

He also directed two volumes of interviews with Philippe Sollers: Ligne de risque and Poker.

In 2007, he published Cercle (Éditions Gallimard), a novel which earned him the prix Décembre and the prix Roger Nimier.

In 2007, a controversy arose with Alina Reyes who accused him of plagiarism.

In 2008-2009, Haenel was a resident at the French Academy in Rome, the Villa Médicis.

In 2009, he was awarded the Prix Interallié and the Prix du roman Fnac for Jan Karski (novel).This book has three parts:

Claude Lanzmann published a vigorous criticism of the novel of which he described the third part as a "falsification of history".

He reproached Haenel for having plagiarized the dialogues of his film without having asked for authorization.

Philippe Sollers, the director of Gallimard's collection L'Infini, said that he submitted Lanzmann the prints of the novel before publication which Lanzmann has always denied.

Haenel responded by claiming the freedom of the novelist

Yannick Haenel is a columnist for the literary and film magazine Transfuge (revue) since 2010 and Charlie Hebdo since the resumption of publication after the January 2015 attacks.

Prix Médicis of 2017