François Bott (26 June 1935 – 22 September 2022)[1] was a French author who after a long career as a journalist and literary critic became a writer of novels, one of which, Une minute d’absence (2001), won the Académie Française's Prix de la Nouvelle.

[3][6] His Vel'd'Hiv' retells the story of the Vélodrome d'hiver, from a cycling track to a place of repression and torture during World War II.

[7] Bott was awarded the Académie Française's Prix de la Nouvelle in 2001 for Une minute d’absence.

[8] Bott's last novel, Nos années éperdues (2015), was praised in the magazine Causeur for its portrayal of life in France in the 1950s, and particularly for the rendering of the correspondence between the two main characters.

[9] A member of the jury of the Roger Vailland prize,[5] Bott has regularly participated in events on the work of the writer, including a lecture on Roger Vailland et 325.000 francs,[10] public reading of Drôle de jeu [fr], at La Table ronde publishing house entitled l'esprit de conquête (Vailland's work: Cortès, le conquérant de l'Eldorado).