Nosir Fozilov

Nosir Fozilov was born on 10 June 1929 in the village of Koriz in the Turkestan district (today in Kazakhstan, then part of Chimkent Region) into a peasant family. His father, Fozil Yoldosh ogli, worked as a collective-farm manager and a cotton-brigade leader; his mother, Jahonbibi Abdulla qizi, kept house and raised the children. His grandfather Tursunmuhammad wrote poetry under the pen name Ghurbatiy, and collections of his verse were published in Tashkent. Nosir’s childhood fell in the war years, so he had to work as well as study, and he finished secondary school later than his peers, in 1949.

That year he came to Tashkent, entered the philology faculty of Central Asian State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan) and graduated in 1954. His first story was published in 1953. From 1955 he worked at the magazine «Gulxan», then in publishing houses, including the Ghafur Ghulam Publishing House of Literature and Art, as a department head and editor, and from 1963 at the magazine «Sharq yulduzi», where he held posts as executive secretary and editor.

Fozilov’s first book, the collection «Irmoq», appeared in 1959. It was followed by «Oqim» (1962), «Robinzonlar» (1964), «Qush qanoti bilan» (1965), «Ko‘klam qissalari» (1970), «Diydor» (1979), «Bolaligim — poshsholigim» (1989), «Ustozlar davrasida» (1989), «Toshkentning nosi» (1996), «Munavvar lahzalar» (1997) and other books. In all he published more than seventy books, about thirty of them his own works and the rest translations.

He was also known as a translator: into Uzbek he rendered works by the Kazakh writers Abai, Mukhtar Auezov, Sabit Mukanov, Gabit Musrepov, Gabiden Mustafin and Abdizhamil Nurpeisov, as well as examples of Kyrgyz and Karakalpak literature. For «Shum bolaning nabiralari» he received the Ghafur Ghulam Prize of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan in 1985, and in 1986 the Writers’ Union of Kazakhstan gave him the Beimbet Mailin Prize for his translations.

In 1990 he won the Hamza State Prize of Uzbekistan for «Ustozlar davrasida» (by the author’s own account), and in the same year was named Honoured Art Worker of the Uzbek SSR. In 1994 he received an international prize established by the President of Kazakhstan for strengthening Uzbek-Kazakh literary ties, and in 1999 the Order «El-yurt hurmati».

Nosir Fozilov died in Tashkent on 13 January 2018, aged 88.