Premio Ostana

The Ostana Prize – Writings in the Mother Tongue [in Italian: Ostana Premio Scritture in Lingua Madre], is an annual prize and cultural initiative organized by the Municipality of Ostana and by the Cultural Association Chambra d'Oc. It is dedicated to languages and to literary authors who use a "mother tongue", a present-day minority language of territorial belonging, in their works. The event began in 2008 and is held in Ostana, a municipality in the Valle Po (Italy), every year at the beginning of June. It is open to the public with free admission.[1][2][3][4]

Categories of Ostana Prize

Every year, the Ostana Prize assigns prizes to authors selected all over the world according to different categories, some of which were added only in the recent editions: International Award, National Award, Award for the Occitan language, Young Writers Award, Special Award, Translation Award, Award for Musical Composition, Film Award.

For the International Award and the National Award the organizers select authors who have used in their works, in whole or in part, one of the minority languages recognized at national and international level.

Because of the geographical location of Ostana Prize in the Occitan Area (the municipality of Ostana is in fact part of the Occitan minority area in Italy) an author writing in the language is given a specific recognition.

The Special Award is conferred to an author who is particularly distinguished in the defence, promotion and dissemination of a minority language in danger of extinction.

The Translation Award is awarded to an author who has achieved distinction in the translation of writings to, or from, a minority language.

The Young Writers Award is given to an under-40 author who has achieved distinction in the field of literature and who is engaged in the promotion of his or her mother tongue.

In the 2016 edition, two awards to artistic career were added: The Award for Musical Composition which is awarded to an author who has been noteworthy in the field of composition in his or her native language, and The Film Award which is given to a filmmaker who made a cinematographic work in a minority language.

Duration of award ceremony

The Ostana Prize – Writings in Mother Tongue has a duration of three days during which the winning authors are invited by the organizers to reside in Ostana, in one of the existing facilities, and to take part in meetings, debates, video projections, readings in minority languages, musical and artistic performances, photographic exhibitions, etc.. On the last day of the event, the prizes to the individual authors are delivered.

The symbols of the Ostana Prize

The Ostana Prize, a glass sculpture representing the nightingale, symbol of Occitania, and a gold medal with the Occitan cross, created by Silvio Vigliaturo, contemporary Italian artist and glass sculptor.

The prize consists of: a glass sculpture, specially created by the Italian artist Silvio Vigliaturo with the illustration of a nightingale, symbol of Occitan culture (in reference to the song "Se chanta"), accompanied by a gold medal created by Marco Gioielli which represents the Occitan cross.

Objectives

The objectives of the Ostana Prize are:

  • celebrating and bringing together authors (writers, poets, musicians, filmmakers, translators) who contribute to the promotion of enduring and emerging languages with their work,
  • listening and making the public aware of the sound of endangered, yet eager-to-live, languages, in order to discover through these languages the histories and cultures of the people who speak them,
  • highlighting the value of multilingualism through the live testimonies of authors and artists from around the world.

The Writers

In the eight years of activity of the Award 48 writers have been invited; among those 8 were Occitan. The remaining 40 represented different languages.

The languages

The Ostana Prize has been awarded to representatives of minority languages such as: Friulian language, Slovene language, Cimbrian language, Ladin language, Armenian language, Sardinian language, Standard Tibetan, Basque language, Romani language, Totonacan languages, Catalan language, Huave language, Breton language, Sami languages, Hebrew language, Maltese language, Corsican language, Cheyenne language, Kurdish languages, Māori language, Galician language, Shuar language, Yoruba language, Frisian languages, Griko dialect e Occitan language.

Award winners

edition 1, year 2008

22–23 November

edition 2, year 2010

19–20 June

edition 3, year 2011

3–5 June

edition 4, year 2012

2–3 June

edition 5, year 2013

1–2 June

edition 6, year 2014

31 May – 2 June

edition 7, year 2015

30 May – 2 June[5]

edition 8, year 2016

2–5 June

Awards to artistic career

edition 9, year 2017

  • Salem Zenia language: Amazigh-Kabyle, Special Award
  • Joséphine Bacon language :Innu, International Award
  • Francesco Severini language: linguistic minorities of Italy, National Award
  • Roland Pecout language: Occitan, Award for the Occitan language
  • Erlend O. Nodtvedt language: Nynorsk, Giovani Award
  • Gwyn Griffiths language: Welsh, Translation Award

Awards to artistic career

  • Mans De Breish language: Award for Musical Composition in the Occitan language
  • Samir Aït Belkacem language: Kabyle, Film award

edition 10, year 2018

edition 11, year 2019

edition 12 (2020) and edition 13 (2021)

Both editions were held without awardees because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

edition 14, 2022

edition 15, year 2023

23 June – 25 June[7]

References

  1. ^ "Tutto pronto per l'ottava edizione del "Premio Ostana"". Targatocn.it. 1 June 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  2. ^ Trento, Agenzia di Comunicazione Archimede -. "XVIII Premio Ostana alle lingue madri – Terre di savoia". www.visitterredeisavoia.it. Archived from the original on 8 March 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  3. ^ "Dalla lingua Yoruba allo shar-chicham, nel borgo occitano di Ostana un festival per salvare le lingue minori". L'Huffington Post. 24 May 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  4. ^ d'Oc, Chambra. "Il Premio Ostana 2016 si avvia a diventare un festival dei diritti linguistici delle lingue resistenti ed emergenti". www.chambradoc.it. Archived from the original on 8 March 2017. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  5. ^ "Premio Ostana per scritture in lingua madre, Maggio canoro a Tavagnasco". Repubblica.it (in Italian). 30 May 2015. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  6. ^ "Nigerian linguist, Túbọ̀sún, emerges first African to win Premio Ostana Award for Scriptures – TheCable". TheCable. 25 January 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  7. ^ "Ostana Prize 2023 recognises Tamajeq, Basque, Asturian, Arpitan, Corsican, Gaelic writers". Nationalia. 26 May 2023. Retrieved 26 May 2023.