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The prize was given in recognition of her life’s work, which includes some twenty collections of poetry and a number of novels. The Prix Goncourt de la poésie, established in 1914, is France’s most prestigious poetry prize and Vénus Khoury-Ghata now joins the ranks of its illustrious winners.

Born in Bsharri, Lebanon, in 1937, Vénus studied literature in Beirut and began a career in journalism before settling in Paris in 1972.

Her first poetry collection, Les Visages Inachevés (Unfinished Faces), was published in 1966. Throughout her career, she has been awarded the Apollinaire Prize for Poetry (1980), the Mallarmé Prize (1987), the Grand Prix of the French Society of Authors (1990) and the Prix Supervielle (1998). Her most recent collection is Où vont les arbres? (Mercure de France, 2011).