The prize carries a symbolic reward of only 10 euros, but results in considerable recognition and book sales for the winning author.

[3] Notable winners of the prize include Marcel Proust (In Search of Lost Time), Simone de Beauvoir (The Mandarins), André Malraux (Man's Fate) and Marguerite Duras (The Lover).

"[5] Hervé Le Tellier's The Anomaly, which won the Goncourt in 2020, exceeded a million copies in less than a year after its publication.

[8] Some choices have been controversial, a famous example was Marcel Proust in 1919; it was met with indignation by the public since many believed that the prize should have gone to Roland Dorgelès for Les Croix de bois, a novel about the First World War.

[9][10] In 1921, Rene Maran won the Goncourt with Batouala, veritable roman negre, the first French novel to openly criticize European colonialism in Africa.

[11] In 1932, the prize was controversial for passing up Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Voyage au bout de la nuit for Guy Mazeline's Les Loups.

[13] Although the award may only be given to an author once, Romain Gary won it twice, in 1956 for Les racines du ciel and again under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975 for La vie devant soi.

[14] In September 2021, the Goncourt attracted controversy after the jury decided, by a vote of 7 to 3, to include Les enfants de Cadillac by François Noudelmann on its 2021 list of finalists.

[15] In October 2021, the Académie Goncourt ultimately decided that it will no longer allow lovers and family members of the jury to be entered for consideration.

In turn, the names are taken out and each member of the jury votes aloud in favour of, or in opposition to, the writer.

An absolute majority—more than half the votes cast—is required until the tenth round, then a simple majority is sufficient to designate a winner.

At 12:45 p.m., the Secretary General, currently Philippe Claudel, appears in front of the crowd of journalists and announces the winner.

The prize was officially renamed in 2012 the Prix Goncourt de la Poésie Robert Sabatier, after the poet.