Temirkhan Medetbek is a Kazakh poet. He has worked in the media and creative industries and was editor-in-chief at the journals Aķiķat and Žu̇ldyz. His first poetry collection appeared in 1970 and since then he has been a prolific writer. His notable collection Kôk tùrikter saryny (Melodies of the Kok Turks, 2002) describes modern and contemporary issues in the form of ancient Turkic psalms of the seventh and eighth centuries. Medetbek’s poems have been translated into six languages. He has also written critical prose and has translated many foreign works of poetry and prose into Kazakh. Medetbek has been awarded the Prize of the Writers’ Union of Kazakhstan and the State Prize of Kazakhstan, and is a recipient of the order Ķu̇rmеt (2005).
