Érik Orsenna is the pen-name of Érik Arnoult a French politician and novelist. After studying philosophy and political science at the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris, Orsenna specialized in economics at the London School of Economics. He was a close collaborator of François Mitterrand and held several government positions in the 1980s and 1990s. He is a member of the Conseil d'État, having been appointed in 1985. He was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 1988 for his book L’exposition coloniale and was elected to the Académie Française on 28 May 1998. He won the 1990 International Nonino Prize in Italy. For Voyage au pays du coton he received the second prize of the Lettre Ulysses Award in 2006.