INTERVIEW WITH ELENA MAKAROVA

OCA Magazine: Tell us, please, about yourself and your creative activity / work
Elena Makarova: I am a Philologist-Russianist. I am the author of 8 books for children. I started my professional career at school and then worked at the Tashkent Pediatric Medical Institute. Currently, I am teaching my private Russian language course to foreigners. Six years ago I published my first Collection of poems for children. In 2021, I published the Collection of poems for the youngest children 1+ “Мой ребенок (“My child”) and my book was awarded the “Best Book in Uzbekistan”.

OCA: How did you choose your path and who is your role model in the creative space or life?
EM: Being at school I got first place in Republic Olympiads in literature. That time already I tried to write poems. After graduating, I entered the Faculty of Russian Philology at Tashkent State University.

OCA: What is your main achievement in 2023-2024?
EM: In September 2023, at the XII Open Eurasian Literature Festival & Book Forum, I became a laureate of the “Voice of Friends” poetry competition. A big event for me was presenting the collection of translations of my poems for children into the Belarusian language “Svayo dzitsyanya” in December 2023 at the ECG meeting in Minsk.

OCA: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?
EM: I write for very young children who is elder than 1-year-old. I am convinced that children should be introduced to reading books from this age. The value of my poems and fairy tales is that they help adults raise children on universal human values. And also my works are international and easy to translate into other languages.

OCA: Tell us, please, about the events or projects of the Eurasian Creative Guild (London) and projects that you have already taken part in and how does ECG influence your creativity and success in your work?
EM: I joined the Eurasian Creative Guild in the fall of 2022. I succeeded in participating and becoming a laureate of the “Voices of Friends” poetry competition. Thanks to this event, I was invited to an ECG creative trip to the cities of Russia: Yekaterinburg, Kazan, and Moscow. And in Belarus, at a meeting with ECG members in Minsk, a presentation of a collection of my poems for children in the Belarusian language took place. The author of the translation is Maria Muchinskaya, also a member of the ECG. We met at the XII Open Eurasian Literature Festival in Burabay (Kazakhstan) in September 2023. In Minsk, I also met Mikhail Kunitsky. He translated my collection of poems “Dad, Mom, Brother and Me.” I would like to express my gratitude to Marina Alyasova and Gennady Gorovoy for the invitation to their interview project “Guild in Faces”. I also thank ECG Executive Director Taina Kaunis for the opportunity to have an interview in Tashkent.

OCA: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?
EM: I want my works, which I lovingly write for children, to be read in different countries and states. It may sound cliché, but I want to make our world a little better.

OCA: What would you wish for the members of the Guild and other creative people, just starting their career?
EM: I wish everyone to believe in themselves! We are all unique. Our creative ideas must be realized. Don’t stand still. Look for opportunities to realize your ideas!