Shamshad Abdullaev

Abdullaev was born on 1 November 1957 in Fergana, then part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic. He attended the local Fergana Pedagogical institute, graduating in 1979 with a degree in Russian literature. == Career ==

Early career Abdullaev attended the Fergana Pedagogical Institute from 1975 to 1979, where he specialized in Russian literature. In the early 1990s, he moved to Tashkent just before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and found employment at a local paper, Star of the East (Zvezda Vostoka). Founded in 1932 by the Uzbek Communist Party, the magazine published literary and poetic anthologies by Uzbek writers. In 1991, Adbullaev became the editor-in-chief of the magazine's poetry section. The magazine experienced modest local success, however Abdullaev's work soon began gaining international recognition. In 1992, Abdullaev published his first collection of poems, Intermediate (Russian: Промежуток). The book, which incorporates the strands of modernism with utopianism as well as Soviet and Central Asian mythological symbolism, received widespread acclaim in Uzbekistan, Russia, and much of the post-Soviet world, where it was lauded for its use of modernism in a distinctly Central Asian style. In 2015, Abdullaev participated in Your Language My Ear, an international poetry symposium dedicated to Russian poetry in translation and held at the University of Pennsylvania. He appeared alongside Polina Barskova, Keti Chukhrov, Alexandra Petrova, and Aleksandr Skidan, as well as a number of other important translators. Several of Abdullaev's poems translated at this event have since been published in English. In April 2017, Abdullaev teamed up with Words Without Borders' online magazine to release three new poems, translated by Alex Cigale and Dana Golin, respectively. == Fergana School ==

Abdullaev was the founder and most prominent poet of the so-called Fergana School of poetry, which is based in his hometown. He founded the school in 1990 along with fellow Uzbek poets Hamid Ismailov and Hamdam Zakirov. Despite being located in Uzbekistan, the school primarily publishes poetry in Russian. Abdullaev said that the reason he did not publish more poems in the Uzbek language was because he viewed his poems as forms of intercultural dialogue between Post-Soviet peoples. His poems can be best described as contrasting the cultures, customs and nuances of Central Asia with distinctively Western principles and theories, in the hopes of creating a dialogue between the two different cultures. The declarative function of the Fergana School is to start a "neutral dialogue" between the East and West with poetry that speaks to both sides. Reception Abdullaev's poetry in particular has received praise outside of Russia. It has been described as "cinematic" "utopian" and "avant-garde." However, Abdullaev's work has also generated considerable controversy within Uzbekistan. It was heavily criticized by the Uzbek government, particularly during the presidency of Islam Karimov. In the 1990s the government-backed writer's union accused Abdullaev of attempting to hinder the development of the Uzbek language through his use of Russian, as well as undermining Central Asian culture. == Personal life and death ==

An ethnic Uzbek, Abdullaev lived his whole life in Fergana, with brief residency in Tashkent when he worked at Zvezda Vostoka. on 23 October 2024, at the age of 67. == Honours and awards ==

• Andrei Bely Prize, 1994 • Znamya Prize, 1998 • Russian Prize of the Boris Yeltsin Centre (2006, 2013) • American Academy in Rome Joseph Brodsky Memorial Fellowship Fund (resident, 2015) == See also ==