Adalat Ismayilov

Biography

Born on 1 February 1968 in Dmanisi (Bashkechid), in the Borchali region of Georgia, into a family of intellectuals. He was the son of the well-known poet and journalist Madad Joshgun; his mother worked as a teacher for many years.

He finished the Russian secondary school of Bashkechid and studied at the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow from 1990 to 1996. From 1990 he lived and worked in Baku.

He worked for the publications Elm, İntibah, Əlillər, Kaspi and New Baku Post, and for the Baku office of the BBC Azerbaijani service, where he helped establish the office and the professional routine of its daily work. From 2019 he was editor-in-chief of the journal Əqli mülkiyyət (Intellectual Property).

He was the father of three sons — Ziyad, Madad and Murad. He rests at the old cemetery of Shuvalan, Baku, beside his sister Sadagat Ismayilova, formerly head of the BBC Azerbaijani service's London bureau.

Daltonik («Дальтоник») and the Russian Prize 2024

His Russian-language poem «Дальтоник» (Daltonik, "The Colourblind") took second place in the poetry nomination of the 2024 «Русская премия» (Russian Prize) — the only Russian literary award for Russian-language authors living outside Russia.

591 works from 55 countries were submitted; the shortlist featured authors from 11 countries. The awards were presented in Moscow on 12 December 2024 by ASPIR, the Association of Writers' and Publishers' Unions of Russia. First place went to Sergey Pagyn (Moldova) and third to Natalya Beloyedova (Uzbekistan).

Tiflisdə yeddi məhbus

His novel Tiflisdə yeddi məhbus ("Seven Prisoners in Tbilisi") was published in Baku in 2014 (256 pages). The book is devoted to the history of Borchali, human destinies and childhood memories. He was the author of several books in Azerbaijani and Russian.