[1] The prize is awarded on the occasion of the book fair which takes place in Brive-la-Gaillarde, in the département of Corrèze, région Limousin, France.
Over the past three years it has been financed through sponsorship from the company ISS; previously it was sponsored by the Mairie of Brives.
Its main objective is the promotion of poetry, and for a long time it was presided over by Guillevic and Alain Bosquet.
Notable members of the Académie include Jean Orizet, Marie-Claire Bancquart, Lionel Ray, Claude-Michel Cluny, François Montmaneix, Robert Sabatier, Jean Rousselot, Michel Deguy, Charles Dobzinski, Philippe Jones, Jean-Michel Maulpoix, Henri Meschonnic, Pierre Oster, Vénus Khoury-Ghata; and the foreign correspondents are Ismail Kadaré, Seamus Heaney and Andrei Vossnessenski.
The Academy also seeks to promote the work of Stéphane Mallarmé, which is now in the public domain (since he died more than a hundred years ago).