Biography

Born in Monts d’Arrée (La Feuillée) in the middle of the last century, Christian Le Bras (Kristian Braz) has published three novels for children (Spont, Kest and Pelec’h emañ an Tad Nedeleg?).

Ever since he was a child, Kristian Braz felt he had been chasing his language, Breton, a language he had heard from an early age there on the Monts d’Arrée. Indeed, Kristian, born in 1949 and the youngest of his siblings, had only ever heard French spoken at home by his parents, even though they were both Bretons: he would learn Breton later, through all possible ways. After studying history and spending time travelling in Germany, Ireland, Scotland and Greece, Kristian returned to Brittany in 1990, the year France 3’s Fanch Broudic asked him to make a documentary about a carpenter from the Vieux-Marché. The urgency to testify became even clearer to him during the arrests of Bretons, guilty of harbouring Basques, in Spring of 1992: Kristian worked to collect more than 50 testimonies, so as to clearly expose the facts, restoring dignity and rights to the arrested activists. The film was released that same year under the title “An digemer – Basques et Bretons” and has become indispensable for anyone wanting to understand the relationship between Bretons and Basques.

He later devoted himself to the audiovisual magazine “Sell’ta”. Between 1996 and 1997, “Blaz Produktion” was born. Thanks to some funding, equipment borrowed from the ARC in Quimper and the help of a young student cameraman, he managed to record more than 300 hours of life stories. This resulted in a series of 8 films (a summary of the entire project), divided according to different language areas of Brittany, later published by TES. Thanks to this project, he became Director of the video collection programme in Breton ‘A-hed ar C’hantved’ (‘Beyond the Century’) and of dozens of reportages and documentaries, also in Breton, bringing to attention many moments of claims, struggles, demonstrations and events that marked everyday Breton life over time.

Since 2002, Kristian has been dedicating himself to writing in Breton with publications for children and young people, such as “Kest” (2010, “Keit Vimp Bev” ed.), an educational and historical novel set during the Second World War. He is the author of several collections of short stories (‘Al Liamm’ ed.), such as ‘Rebetiko hag istoriou all’ or ‘Kroashent-tro’ and for his works he received three times (2012, 2018, 2023) the ‘Short Stories’ Prize of the city of Carhaix at the ‘Festival of the Book of Brittany’ as well as the ‘Xavier de Langlais Prize’ (2016).

Kristian is also a popular translator from English and German into Breton. He has, in fact, translated John Steinbeck, Jack London, JD Salinger, John Mac Gahern, Flann O’Brien, Alistair McLeod, John Le Carré, and Jack Kerouac into Breton.

Despite all these commitments, he also manages to organise thematic training courses in Breton within the Blaz Produktion association, while still finding time to create (in 2020) and host Radio Ribin, the web radio of the Monts d’Arrée.

Motivation Prize

Ostana Special Prize 2025 is awarded to Kristian Braz, a prolific Breton writer and translator with a remarkable ability, so much so that he has received the “Short Stories” Prize of the city of Carhaix at the “Festival du Livre en Bretagne” three times (2012, 2018, 2023), as well as being the winner of the “Prix Xavier de Langlais” (2016). He won the Special Prize for his all-round commitment, his concrete activism in favour of the Breton cause and his strong determination to promote his mother tongue, touching every aspect of culture, from writing to field research, from radio broadcasting to teaching, from translation to popularisation.

Indeed, Kristian Braz has dedicated his entire life to Breton: thanks to his multifaceted personality, he actively testifies to his identity, living his being Breton in everyday life, in every context and in every place, from the most intimate and familiar moments to the most courtly ones, such as winning important prizes and awards. The Ostana Prize is intended as a recognition of the all-round work done by Kristian Braz in giving continuity and visibility to the Breton language.