A visiting professor at UCLA has won France’s prestigious Prix Renaudot, “the French equivalent of the National Book Award,” the university announced today. Alain Mabanckou, who is spending the 2006-7 academic year teaching in the department of French and Francophone studies, will formally receive the award today in Paris for his 2006 novel Memoire de Porc-epic (Memoirs of a Porcupine), which UCLA described as “a contemporary fable based on an African belief that each human being has an animal alter ego.”

The Congolese-born author has already made a name for himself in France with such novels as Bleu Blanc Rouge (Blue White Red), African Psycho, and Verre Casse (Broken Glass), all of which are scheduled to be released in English over the next year. “Mabanckou is such a celebrity in France that a French television crew accompanied him to his first day of class last month at UCLA,” a university news release reported.