Qochqor Norqobil

Qochqor Norqobil was born on 5 March 1968 in the village of Mo'minqul in the Oltinsoy district of the Surkhandarya region. After secondary school he took part in the war in Afghanistan in 1986–1988.

He then studied at the journalism faculty of Tashkent State University (now the National University of Uzbekistan), graduating in 1992. He worked as a correspondent for newspapers and magazines and headed the politics and international affairs department of the newspaper “O'zbekiston ovozi”.

His writing began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when he wrote the stories “Bosinqirash”, “Asorat” and “Xun”. As a poet he is known for the collections “Xosiyatli dunyo” (1992) and “Kaftimdagi qizg'aldoq” (1993).

The war in Afghanistan is one of the main themes of his prose. In the novella “Daryo ortidagi yig'i” (“The Cry Beyond the River”, 1994) he described events he had witnessed in Afghanistan himself; it won the Usmon Nosir prize. The theme continues in the books “Afg'on: 2 rota”, “Biz jangdan qaytmadik…” and “Olislarda osmon yo'q edi”. His documentary novellas and novels, among them “Kulib tur, azizim” (2005), “Qorong'u uy” and “Xayr, beshinchi mart”, deal with war and the individual, life and death.

Norqobil is also a playwright: his plays have been staged in national and regional theatres. In 2025 his stage piece “She'riyatning mangu sadosi” was produced at the Muqimiy Uzbek State Academic Musical Theatre as part of a project of the Ministry of Culture and the Writers’ Union.

In 2001 he was given the title Honoured Journalist of Uzbekistan. His books have also been published in Russia; in 2022 the Public Chamber of the Russian State Duma and the International Writers’ Union awarded him the Order of “Saint Anna”, and the same year he took first place in the prose competition of the international festival “Golden Pen of Moscow”. He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Uzbekistan.