Shamshad Abdullaev

His first poetry collection, entitled The Gap, was published in Saint Petersburg, Russia, by the local magazine Mitin. The Gap received critical acclaim and won Abdullaev the prestigious Andrei Bely Prize in 1994. Abdullaev was a contributor to Words Without Borders, where he published several of his poems: 'On the Death of Jean Vigo', 'Midday 1975', and 'Family', all originally written in Russian.

Shamshad Abdullaev studied at Fergana State University. The recorded working language is Russian. The field of work recorded is poetry, literature and creative and professional writing. Places of work recorded in the authority are Soviet Union and Russia. Distinctions recorded are Andrei Bely Prize.

• Name — Shamshad Abdullaev • Native Name — Шамшад Маджитович Абдуллаев Uzbek • Born — 1 November 1957 • Birthplace — Fergana, Uzbek SSR, USSR • Died — 23 October 2024 • Place of death — Almaty, Kazakhstan • Occupation — Poet, essayist, author • Years Active — 1987–2024 • Genre — Social poetry • Language — Russian • Notable Works — The Gap Slow Summer Three Poems • Education — Fergana Pedagogical institute (1979)

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.

Abdullaev attended the Fergana Pedagogical Institute from 1975 to 1979, where he specialised in Russian literature. In the early 1990s, he moved to Tashkent shortly 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, Abdullaev 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 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 1994, he had a breakthrough with his book of poetry The Gap, which received widespread circulation and attention in the Russophone world. That year he was recognised with the Andrei Bely Prize, becoming the first writer from Uzbekistan to win Russia's most prestigious unofficial literary award. This resulted in backlash from more traditional communist segments of Uzbekistan's population, as well as the emerging nationalist faction of Uzbek poets, who were dismayed by his use of Russian. As a result, Abdullaev was forced to resign from his position as editor‑in‑chief at Zvezda Vostoka in 1995.

After leaving Zvezda Vostoka, Abdullaev began publishing his poetry outside Uzbekistan, notably in Russia. His poems were published in a number of independent Russian literary journals, including the St Petersburg‑based Mitin and the Yekaterinburg‑based Ural Novye. In 1997, Abdullaev self‑published a collection of poems, Slow Summer (Russian: медленное лето). The book received critical acclaim in Russia and won Abdullaev the Banner Magazine Prize in 1998. Also in 1997, Abdullaev published a Russian‑Finnish anthology entitled Who Says (Russian: Кто говорит), which dealt with the cultural relationship between the two nations. It was compiled and translated by Y. Mullinen. These compilations won Abdullaev the Banner Magazine Prize, awarded by the Russian literary magazine Znamya in 1998. In 2003, Abdullaev published his fourth book of poetry, Fixed Surface.

In 2012, Abdullaev, along with other writers including Fanny Rubio and Rainer Maria Rilke, was featured in a poetry compilation, Two Lines 19: Passageways. The compilation, published by the Center for the Art of Translation, features various poems from authors around the world sharing their unique experiences. In 2015, Abdullaev participated in 'Your Language My Ear', an international poetry symposium dedicated to Russian poetry in translation, 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 collaborated with Words Without Borders' online magazine to release three new poems, translated by Alex Cigale and Dana Golin, respectively.

An ethnic Uzbek, Abdullaev lived his whole life in Fergana, with a brief period of residency in Tashkent when he worked at Zvezda Vostoka. He was an accomplished polyglot, fluent in both Uzbek and Russian, as well as conversational English. Abdullaev died from cancer on 23 October 2024, at the age of 67.