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Tunisian-French Poet Arwa Ben Dhia Receives Second Prize Ex Aequo at the Grand Prix de Poésie “Jenny Alpha et Noël-Henry Villard”
Villers-sur-Mer, France — 26 September 2026 — Tunisian-French poet Arwa Ben Dhia has received the Deuxième Prix ex aequo (Second Prize, jointly awarded) in the Grand Prix de Poésie “Jenny Alpha et Noël-Henry Villard”, organized by the Société des Poètes et Artistes de France (SPAF) as part of its international Grand Prix d’Art et de Poésie. The distinction was awarded for her poetry collection Un miracle me sourit dans tes yeux (A Miracle Smiles at Me in Your Eyes). The certificate, signed by Pascal Lecordier, President of the Competition Jury, is dated 26 September 2026 in Villers-sur-Mer, France.
The award is accompanied by a distinctive presentation medal housed in a black box marked “Bronzes de Mohon”, the French artistic foundry established in Mohon in 1925. The medal is silver-coloured, circular and finely relief-worked, bearing the name of the French poets and artists’ society around its upper edge. Its central composition combines sculptural line work with small areas of coloured geometric enamel-like decoration in red, yellow and black, giving the medal a contemporary artistic character while retaining the traditional appearance of a literary prize medal. Together with the formal certificate, the medal constitutes the material symbol of Ben Dhia’s recognition by the French poetic institution.
Un miracle me sourit dans tes yeux
The winning work is Un miracle me sourit dans tes yeux, a 2026 poetry collection published by Les Poètes Français. The title itself evokes one of the characteristic dimensions of Arwa Ben Dhia’s poetry: the encounter between intimate emotion, love, vulnerability and the possibility of light emerging from difficult human experiences. Bibliographical information from French poet Maggy DeCoster confirms the publication of the collection in 2026 by Les Poètes Français.
The new distinction adds to a growing record of recognition for Ben Dhia’s poetry. Her previous books include L’amour aux temps du web (2014), Voyage de senteurs (2015), Silence Orange (2023), and Les quatre et une saisons (2024). The latter was co-published in France and Tunisia and subsequently received several literary distinctions. Her 2023 collection Silence Orange received the International Poetic and Artistic Prize of the feminist poetry review Orientales.
Ben Dhia’s literary career is notable for its combination of scientific and artistic disciplines. Born in Tunisia in 1986 and based in France, she is a doctor in electronics, engineer, polyglot poet, translator, author and literary preface writer. Her publisher, Éditions du Cygne, describes her as a member of several cultural and literary organizations and notes her regular participation in literary reviews and anthologies.
Her poetry frequently moves between the personal and the universal. Critical profiles of her work have highlighted themes including intimate pain, exile, human dignity, love, freedom and resistance, while her writing has also addressed war, violence and threats to humanity and nature. Her poetry has appeared in French, English and Spanish, reflecting the multilingual dimension of her literary identity.
The 2026 Grand Prix recognition also follows earlier recognition within the French-speaking poetic world. In the 2025 SAPF poetry competition, Ben Dhia received the Prix de la Francophonie for her work L’amour en temps de guerre.
With the Second Prize ex aequo of the Grand Prix de Poésie “Jenny Alpha et Noël-Henry Villard”, Arwa Ben Dhia’s latest collection joins her expanding body of award-winning poetry and further establishes her presence within contemporary French-language poetry, connecting a Tunisian literary heritage with the wider francophone cultural space.
