Omon Mukhtor

Omon Mukhtor (family name Mukhtorov) was born in Bukhara on 16 July 1941. He finished school there in 1958; among his classmates was the future well-known actor Bakhtiyor Ikhtiyorov. In 1964 he graduated from the journalism department of the philology faculty of Tashkent State University. He began writing in the late 1950s, and his first poetry collection, “Chorlar quyoshli yo'llar” (“Sunny Roads Are Calling”), appeared in 1966.

He worked in the press and in cultural institutions, holding various posts at Uzbek Radio (1965–1975), the Uzbekfilm studio (1975–1977), the Ghafur Ghulam Publishing House of Literature and Art (1977–1980) and the State Cinema Committee of Uzbekistan (1980–1984).

From 1984 he served at the magazine “Sharq yulduzi”: first as head of a department (1984–1989), then as deputy editor-in-chief (1989–1995), and from 1995 as the magazine's editor-in-chief.

As a poet he published the collections “Ohang” (1974), “Yog'du” (1979), “Marvarid” (1985) and “Shiddat” (1990). In prose he wrote books of stories and novellas such as “Nigoh” (1968), “Qushlar va tushlar” (1971), “Shaharlik kelinchak” (1973), “Hayot darvozasi” (1978), “Vazifa” (1988) and “O'lmagan jon” (1995); his characters are mostly people of ordinary trades. As a playwright he wrote plays, among them “Bosh masala”, that were staged at the Khorezm theatre.

His early novels were “Yillar shamoli” (1976) and “Egilgan bosh” (1989). In his later works — “Ayollar mamlakati va saltanati” and “Ffu” (both 1997), “Aflotun” (1998) and the trilogy “To'rt tomon qibla” (2001), which joins the novels “Ming bir qiyofa”, “Ko'zgu oldidagi odam” and “Tepalikdagi xaroba” — he draws on folk tales, legends and epics to portray present-day people and their inner world. A feature film based on “Ayollar mamlakati va saltanati” was made in 2001.

For “Egilgan bosh” he received the annual literary prize of the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan in 1990. In 1991 he was given the honorary title of Honoured Art Worker, and in 1997 he was awarded the Order of Friendship (Do'stlik). Omon Mukhtor died in Tashkent on 10 May 2013 and was buried at the Minor cemetery in the city.