Contributors
Betty Blair, Editor |
Pirouz Khanlou, Publisher |
Arzu Aghayeva, Baku Manager |
Aynura Huseinova, Editorial Assistant |
Aytan Aliyeva, Editorial Assistant |
Gulnar Aydamirova, Editorial Assistant |
Ulviyya Mammadova, Editorial Assistant |
Sakina Isgandarova, Editorial
Assistant |
Narges Abadi, Editorial Assistant |
Doug Davis, Graphic Designer |
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About the Contributors
We're very proud to publish this issue-"Passionate
Pens in Pursuit of Truth: Azerbaijani Literature." It's
the largest issue we have ever produced in the 12-year history
of Azerbaijan International magazine. We've deliberately published
this volume in black and white print so that we could produce
a larger issue and include more authors.
This is the third time in the history of our magazine that we
have focused our attention on Azerbaijani literature. Earlier
issues include: "Contemporary Literature" (Spring
1996, (AI 4.1) and "Century of Reversals: A Literary
Perspective" (Spring
1999 (AI 7.1). [See AZER.com to read them or you can order
back issues at AZER.com, AI Store].
Together these three issues comprise nearly 130 solid pages of
literature-the largest compilation in English that exists of
Azerbaijani literature in translation since the country gained
its independence in late 1991.
It has taken an enormous team effort to prepare this volume,
not only on the part of the staff of Azerbaijan International,
but by many members in Azerbaijan's literary community - both
writers and critics.
Actually, publishing literary translations is quite a long involved
process. First, we had to identify what we considered to be the
best works for Western readers. This often meant that we read
four or five times the amount of literature that we actually
translated and published. Then there were the countless meetings
with authors to seek their advice and clarify meaning. The actual
translation and proofreading process was carried out by our staff
members Arzu Aghayeva, Aytan Aliyeva, Gulnar
Aydamirova and Ulviyya Mammadova.
Aynura Huseinova was brave enough to tackle much of
the poetry as well. Needless to say in our first literary issue
back in 1994, there weren't as many young people fluent in English
as there are these days. In addition, we have drawn upon the
translations from past years by Jala Garibova, Aynur
Hajiyeva, Vafa Mastanova, and Vafa Talishly.
Finally comes the actual editing process, designing and printing.
Since many of these works were available only in the Cyrillic
script of Azeri language, we've gone one step further to make
them available in Azeri Latin. You'll find them on our Web site
at AZERI.org. Kudos to Sakina Isgandarova for typing hundreds
of pages in Azeri Latin and to Ulviyya Mammadova for proofreading
and designing the pages for the Web.
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