Turkey releases new book dedicated to Usmon Azim

Turkish poet, translator, and literary critic Fatih Sultan Yilmaz, known for his in-depth studies of Turkic literature, has published a scholarly book dedicated to the People’s Poet of Uzbekistan, Usmon Azim, in honor of the writer’s 75th anniversary. The book, titled ’’A devotee of Uzbek literature: Usmon Azim (era, personality, works)’’, explores the poet’s creative legacy. Yilmaz announced the publication on his Facebook page.

The book consists of three chapters, with the first and third authored by Fatih Sultan Yilmaz himself. The first chapter provides a scholarly analysis of Usmon Azim’s literary portrait, the era in which he created, his poetics, literary personality, and the central themes reflected in his works. The second chapter compiles articles written specifically for this book by Uzbek and Turkish literary scholars. Yilmaz translated the articles written in Uzbek into Turkish for local readers. In addition, researchers such as Shoira Akhmedova, Aleyna Koc, Nasiba Norova, Sarvinoz Nematova, Ogiloy Tuyboeva, Madinabonu Rahmatova, and Zarnigor Sohibova from Turkey also contributed to the book.

The third chapter features the author’s face-to-face interview with Usmon Azim in Tashkent, which includes the poet’s previously unpublished thoughts and reflections on the Turkic world and world literature.

’’In this chapter, readers will not only meet the poet they know through his works but also glimpse into his inner world. May it bring benefit to Turkish readers, as well as to Turkic and world literary studies. Bismillah,’’ the author wrote.

Fatih Sultan Yilmaz did not stop with this research alone. Last week, he also released a translated poetry collection of Usmon Azim titled ’’Sessızce oturdum dünya içinde’’ (’’I sat silently in the world’’), published by Bengu Publishing House in Turkey. The book covers the poet’s creative journey, from his earliest collections to his most recent poems.

Fatih Sultan Yilmaz was born on June 28, 1995, in the Ortahisar district of Trabzon Province. He completed his master’s degree in Modern Turkic Dialects and Literatures in 2021. In 2024, his book ’’Abay’s trial with death’’, dedicated to the great Kazakh poet Abay Qunanbayuli, was published. Yilmaz has also translated numerous poems from Uzbek, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, and Azerbaijani into Turkish.

Usmon Azim was born in 1950 in the Baysun district of Surkhandarya region. In 1972, he graduated from the Faculty of Journalism at Tashkent State University, now known as the National University of Uzbekistan named after Mirzo Ulugbek. His first poetry collection, Understanding a Human, brought him recognition among the literary community in 1979. Since then, the poet has published several works, including State (1979), Consequence (1980), Mirror (1983), Fragments of an Image (1985), Lesson (1985), The Second of April (1987), In the Style of a Bakhshi (1989), The Strange Dragon (1990), The Pain of Awakening (1991), Sorrow (1994), Long Night (1994), Once There Was and Was Not (1995), Selected Works (1995), and Autumn (2001). His prose collections include Magic (2003), The Writer’s Life (2010), Final Words (2020), as well as Collage (2018), which combines both prose and poetry.

Moreover, Usmon Azim is the author of nearly three thousand poetic works. He was awarded the State Prize of Georgia named after Vladimir Mayakovsky in 1982 and received the Order of Friendship in 1998.

It is worth noting that earlier, the People’s Poet of Uzbekistan, Usmon Azim, was honored with Kazakhstan’s international Alash literary award.