ABKHAZOY VAKHTANG VLADIMIROVICH
29.09.1958
Abkhazian poet, journalist, publicist, member of the Unions of Writers of Abkhazia (2003), Russia (2019), the Union of Journalists of the USSR (1985), the International Confederation of Journalists‘ Unions and the Union of Journalists of Abkhazia (1992), winner of the State Prize named after D. I. Gulia (2016), Honoured Journalist of the Republic of Abkhazia, awarded the Order “Akhidz-Apsha” (’Honour and Glory") III degree of the Republic of Abkhazia. Writes in Abkhazian (fiction and articles), Russian (articles). Graduated from Ochamchir Abkhazian secondary school №3 named after S. P. Basaria (1975), the philological faculty of the Abkhazian State University (1981). Since 1981 he has been working in the editorial office of the newspaper Apsny Kapsh (‘Red Abkhazia’, now ‘Apsny’) - as an editor, deputy executive secretary, senior correspondent, head of the department on issues of social and political life (since 1992). During the Georgian-Abkhazian war of 1992-1993 he was a war correspondent of ‘Apsny’ newspaper. At the beginning of the war his flat in Sukhum, together with his library and manuscripts (poems and stories) were looted and burnt.
After the war in Sukhum, he continued to work in the editorial office of the newspaper Apsny as head of the department for relations with compatriots abroad (since 1994), then as editor of the department for social and political life (since 1996). From 2011 to 2016. - From 2011 to 2016, Executive Secretary of the Union of Writers of Abkhazia, Director of the Literary Fund of this organisation. Since 2013, he has been appointed editor-in-chief of the newspaper Aamta (‘Time’), founded by the Union of Writers of Abkhazia. Since 7 December 2016. - On 7 December 2016, he was elected Chairman of the Writers' Union of the Republic of Abkhazia. He was the editor-in-chief of the newspaper ‘Apsadgyil agueysybzh’ (‘Heartbeat of the Motherland’), established by the State Committee of the Republic of Abkhazia on Repatriation (2011-2015).
He initiated and co-authored the publication ‘Abkhazian Writers. Bio-bibliographical dictionary’.
The first publications of V. Abkhazou is associated with poetry. As the author himself believes, his love for poetic creation arose thanks to the work of I.A. Kogonia, a classic of national literature. He was attracted by the beauty of the outstanding poet's poetry and his marvellous language. In the fifth grade, V. Abkhazou wrote his first poems; some of them were then printed on the pages of the Ochamchira district newspaper ‘Akommunizm akh’ (‘Path to Communism’; (now ‘Ertsakhu’) and the magazine ‘Amtsabz’ (‘Flame’). Subsequently, his poems were published in the magazine Alashara (‘Light’), the newspapers Apsny Kapsh, Apsny, Respublika Abkhazia, and in the collective collection Etsvajaa (‘Constellation’, 1989). Some poems were included in the second volume of the Anthology of Abkhazian Poetry. XX century’ (Akua-Moscow, 2001; in Abkhazian; 2nd edition - Akua-Moscow, 2009). Poems translated into Russian were published in the Moscow ‘Obschepisatelskaya Literaturnaya Gazeta’, in the Samara literary and art magazine ‘Russkoe Echo’ (2013, № 4), in the Moscow literary and art magazine ‘Poetry’ (2013, № 2), in the magazine ‘Smena’ (2015, № 6), poems have also been translated into Armenian, Serbian, Turkish languages. A special place in the poet's work is occupied by journalism, he is the author of artistic and journalistic essays on relations with compatriots abroad, on the work of Abkhazian cultural centres in Turkey, Syria, Germany, the USA and other countries, on prominent representatives of foreign Abkhazian diasporas. This is evidenced by a number of published collections of artistic and journalistic essays.
Publications in the Abkhaz language:
- A moment. Poems. Sukhumi, 1989;
- Kyndyg - unhealed wounds [Articles and essays]. Sukhum, 1998;
- A brother's gaze. Poem. Sukhum, 2000;
- The time of amtsakhara (Time of ignition of ancestral fires). [Articles and essays]. Sukhum, 2002;
- Returning to its own course. (Articles and essays). Sukhum, 2004;
- The dawn (Mousetabzia). Poems. Sukhum, 2005;
- Where the roads converge. Artistic and publicistic essays. Sukhum, 2006;
- Quenching thirst. Poems. Sukhum, 2008;
- The spring. Poems. Sukhum, 2011;
- The hearth is burning. Poems and poem. Sukhum, 2015;
- What fate has destined me to do. Poems and poem. Sukhum, 2018;
- translated into Russian: Spring of Immortality. Poem. M., 2018;
- translated into Turkish: Vremya amtsahar (Time of ignition of ancestral fires). [Articles and essays]. Istanbul, 2013.
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