The Modern Novel

Akram Aylisli (real name: Akram Najaf oglu Naibov ) was born in the village of Aylis in 1937 in the Ordubad region of Nakhchivan. His mother was the village story-teller. His father was killed in World War II when Aylisli was five. He studied at the Baku State University, Faculty of Philology and then the Maxim Gorky Literature Institute. He worked as an editor and was also a poet, translator, and playwright. When he published Daş yuxular (Stone Dream in Russian (it has never been published in Azeri) about the pogroms of Armenians in Baku in 1989 and the massacre of Armenians in his native village by Turkish troops in 1919, many Azerbaijanis took offense. He was declared an enemy of the state and the President signed a decree that stripped Aylisli of his title People’s Writer and the associated pension. He was condemned in Parliament and his wife and son lost their jobs. He has continued to be harassed by the authorities and is not allowed to travel abroad.

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Akram Aylisli
Akram Aylisli
Akram Aylisli: how one Azerbaijani writer dealt with a book burning campaign against him
With English translation, controversial Azerbaijani novel to reach global audience
Azeri Author Sends Unpopular Message To Armenians: ‘We Can Live Together’
Akram Aylisli’s Literary Odyssey
Azerbaijan: Harassment of writer must end
Where They Burn Books: A Writer Pays the Price for Honesty
“It is like being pregnant all your life…”
The Stone Dreams scandal: the Nagorny Karabakh conflict and Armenian-Azerbaijani relations in contemporary literature
Akram Aylisli, Village Prose, World Literature