21st-century French essayists

Didier Raoult (French pronunciation: [didje ʁa.ul(t)]; born 13 March 1952) is a retired French physician and microbiologist specialising in infectious diseases. He taught about infectious diseases at the Faculty of Medicine of Aix-Marseille University (AMU), and in 1984, created the Rickettsia Unit of the university. From 2008 to 2022, Raoult was the director of the Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses et Tropicales Emergentes. He gained significant worldwide attention during the COVID-19 pandemic for vocally promoting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for the disease, despite the lack of evidence for its effectiveness and the subsequent opposition from NIH and WHO to its use for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalized patients.As of 2024, nine of Raoult's research publications have been retracted, and another 55 of his publications have received an expression of concern from their publishers, due to questions related to ethics approval for his studies.

Henri Cueco (19 October 1929 – 13 March 2017) was a French painter, essayist, novelist and radio personality. As a self-taught painter, his work was exhibited internationally. He was the author of several books, including collections of essays and novels. He was also a contributor to France Culture. A communist-turned-libertarian, he was a co-founder of Coopérative des Malassis, an anti-consumerist artists' collective. He was best known for The Red Men, a series of figurative paintings depicting aspects of the Cold War like the May 1968 events, the Vietnam War and Red Scare, and his 150 still lifes, or "portraits," of potatoes.

André Glucksmann (French: [ɡlyksman]; 19 June 1937 – 10 November 2015) was a French philosopher, activist, and writer. He was a leading figure of the new philosophers. Glucksmann began his career as a Marxist, who went on to reject Marxism–Leninism and real socialism in the popular book La Cuisinière et le Mangeur d'Hommes (1975), and later became an anti-Communist and outspoken critic of the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russian foreign policy. He was a strong supporter of human rights. In later years, he opposed the claim that Islamic terrorism is the product of the clash of civilizations between Islam and the Western world.

Pierre Hadot (; French: [ado]; 21 February 1922 – 24 April 2010) was a French philosopher and historian of philosophy specializing in ancient philosophy, particularly Epicureanism and Stoicism.

Alain Etchegoyen (6 November 1951 in Lille – 9 April 2007 in Le Mans), was a philosopher and novelist. He was the last Plan Commissionner before that Commission was abrogated. He wrote some twenty books, essays and novels.
A former student of l'École Normale Supérieure, he was a professor in classes prépas at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, and in a professional lycée in Hauts-de-Seine.

Daniel Giraud (10 January 1946 – 6 October 2023) was a French essayist, translator, and poet. He was also a blues musician under the stage name Dan Giraud.
Giraud translated the poems of Oriental writers such as Li Bai, Hanshan, Ryōkan, and Sengcan. He also wrote works on Chan Buddhism, alchemy, and astrology.

Frédéric Jacques Temple (18 August 1921 – 5 August 2020) was a French poet and writer. His work includes poems (collected in 1989 in a "Personal Anthology"), novels, travel stories and essays.
He also realised translations of English, Thomas Hardy, D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and Lawrence Durrell.

Philippe Delerm (born November 27, 1950, in Auvers-sur-Oise, Val-d'Oise, France) is a French writer whose collection of essays La Première gorgée de bière et autres plaisirs minuscules sold more than one million copies in France.

Claude Klotz (6 October 1932 – 13 August 2010), better known by his pen name Patrick Cauvin, was a French writer. He was born in Marseille and died in Paris.

Hervé Edwy Plenel (French pronunciation: [ɛʁve edwi plenɛl]; born 31 August 1952) is a French political journalist.