Historical authors
François Fabié (1846 - 1928), born in Durenque, is a poet from Aveyron. His style is close to that of Pagnol; his prose describes his childhood in Rouergue, a rural environment close to nature. He lived and grew up in the mill of Roupeyrac which can be visited today.
Antonin Artaud (1896-1948) was not a native of the Aveyron, but he stayed in the asylum in Rodez from 1943 to 1946. It seems that the terrible electroshock treatments of Doctor Gaston Ferdières allowed him to start writing again. In his memory, Rodez awards a literary prize every year since 1951.
Jean Boudou (1920-1975), finally, is one of the greatest writers of Occitania (Joan Bodon), native of Crespin. A distant relative of Honoré de Balzac, he wrote many novels, poems and stories describing his native land.
Aveyron in the spotlight
Today, several authors, native of the Aveyron, expatriates in the capital or with both feet still firmly planted in the department, have a nice career.
Olivier Norek, a native of the Decazeville basin, is a former policeman. He is the author of several thrillers, including Entre deux mondes, about the Calais jungle, published in 2017 and which ensured him a popular success. Surfaces, his next novel set in Aveyron, and Impact, his latest work, have propelled him into the big leagues.
Jean-Gabriel Causse, a world-famous colourist and designer born in Rodez, is also one of those who succeed on several levels. Les crayons de couleur, his first novel, published in 2017, flooded bookstores and seduced readers with its feel-good effect. L'algorithme du cœur, in which he tackles artificial intelligence, seems to be following the same path in terms of popular success.
Alain Layrac, the scriptwriter of the cult series Une famille formidable on TF1, who was born in Decazeville, has also turned to paper with, among other things, Une vie de scénariste (A Scriptwriter's Life), in which he retraces his professional career - with its ups and downs - and says a few words about his attachment to Aveyron: "I feel like a citizen of Aveyron and a tourist in Paris".
In another register, more identity-related, Roger Béteille and Daniel Crozes are prolific authors. The first, geographer, honorary professor, specialist in the rural world, has written a good fifteen works for universities or the general public. His novels are the witnesses of the daily life of Rouergate.
Daniel Crozes is the writer of the aveyronnais soil par excellence, with about fifty books to his credit! Les barrages du Lévézou et des raspes du Tarn, La cuisine aveyronnaise avant le surgélateur, Les bougnats de l'Aubrac, André Valadier- L'Aubrac au cœur, Les 501 proverbes de l'Aveyron, L'estofi, Les bêtes noires, and all of his novels constitute a particularly well-documented historical treasure.
