The full interview with Estelle Ceccarini,, Occitan Language Prize 2025 (France), conducted by Andrea Fantino, is now available online.
“Estelle Ceccarini’s poetry has found its way straight into my little personal library – that collection of books nestled between the shelves in my study, waiting for the moment when they’ll be opened and perhaps devoured. There’re many books that demand, or perhaps crave, an almost frantic attention, an impulsive consumption, to be almost eaten up (“devoured”, indeed). But there are others that lie quietly, making no calls; rather, they possess a sort of silent magnetism, attracting gently, with whispers, murmurs – in short, with discretion. Estelle’s books belong to this second category. Tiny books, with white covers, an image and little else, minimalist editorial choices that skilfully preserve the treasure of the verses of a great Occitan poetess, who breathed in the great poetry and literature of Provence (Mistral and D’Arbaud above all) and became its undisputed heir.”
A Camargue’s daughter and the great-granddaughter of an Italian great-grandfather, Estelle grew up without language of her family (Italian) and without the language of the land where she lived (Occitan). The langue d’oc was the language of church services, of the ‘dicho’ at traditional festivals; it was the language used to talk about plants, work and horses.
In the interview, you will hear about a language that is ‘in harmony with the place’, a language ‘that has been shaped by all the generations that came before us on this Earth”, a language that has allowed her to put down roots in a vast landscape, so that she can recount its soul and its mysteries.
Watch the full interview here: