Akberen Yelgezek is a poet and public figure. He has held senior positions at various administrative and arts organisations. He is the first deputy chairman of the Union of Writers of Kazakhstan. Yelgezek’s poems are distinguished by strikingly unusual images and surrealist expressions deriving from dreams and the subconscious rather than reason and logic. A key to many of his poems can be found in his autobiographical tale Bolmaġan balalyķ šaķ (The Childhood that Never Happened), published in 2014 to great acclaim. His verses have been translated into three languages and included in international anthologies. He has also translated the poetry of foreign writers into Kazakh. He has been awarded the Serper Prize of the Union of Youth of Kazakhstan and the State Youth Award Daryn, as well as the Altyn Ķalam Public Prize.
