OCA PEOPLE : MARAT AKHMEDJANOV

OCA Magazine: Please tell us about yourself and your creative activity/work.
MA: In short, I’m a publisher; over the last 20 years of my life, I have been involved in the creation of books and magazines, including this one, and I love my work. People know me as Marat Akhmedjanov or Mark Akhmed (both correct), depending on the country, and come to me when they want to be heard in English-speaking countries or appreciated in their home country. I’m really proud to have this extraordinary opportunity to help them as a publisher and as an individual through my publishing companies ‘Silk Road Media’ and ‘Hertfordshire Press’, and especially through the ‘Eurasian Creative Guild’, where I have been running as the Vice President for the last nine years, uniting and promoting creative people around the world.

OCA Magazine: How did you choose your path in life and who is your role model in the creative space or in life?
MA: The first creative person in my life is my mother (not surprisingly) Maria Shevel, she was an architect. She made an adaptation of regular projects of buildings to the aesthetics of Uzbek culture (you can read about it here on the pages of this issue). Moreover, in my early childhood I assisted my elder brother who was a musician, and this is how I was captivated by the world of creativity. I’m still working not only with musicians, but also with writers and poets (mostly), artists, fashion designers and many others. The Eurasian Creative Guild (London) aka. ECG (London) now has over 3,000 members and is growing fast. But my path to publishing started in the library (still not surprising) where I had a part-time job in high school. The librarian introduced me to the world of interesting books and long discussions that influenced me as a young man. After graduation I left my hometown of Jizzakh (you can read about this place in the OCA Magazine: Jizzakh special issue) and moved to Tashkent where I became the first private publisher of press and started a lifestyle magazine about fashion and beauty called ‘Pery’ (the name of the beauties of the Uzbek version of Eden) and ‘Discovery Central Asia’ magazine dedicated to tourism. Some years later I joined the internship for press in the USA and shortly after that I became the winner of the Chivening full scholarship as an international student and moved to the UK. I graduated from the London School of Printing at the London University of Arts with a Master of Arts in Publishing and settled in the UK in 2006.

OCA Magazine: What were your main achievements in 2023-2024?
MA: I had three anniversaries in a row: I celebrated twenty-five years as a publisher, ‘Silk Road Media’ is twenty years old, and Hertfordshire Press is fifteen years old. And I’m so inspired by what we’ve done, and I’m looking forward to doing more.

OCA Magazine: What is the main feature that makes you and your art/work unique?
MA: I grew up as a product of two worlds (maybe more). My mother was a Slavic Christian from Ukraine and my father was a pure Tatar, born and raised in a very traditional Islamic Uzbekistan. I studied in a very Soviet school that didn’t focus too much on national and religious things and instead promoted a more scientific way of thinking, but at the same time, I lived in a very national and religious community of neighbors called ‘makhalya’. I learned English on my own in high school thanks to the American Library (a program of the U.S. Embassy) and learned a lot about different cultures from expats living and working in Uzbekistan. This multifaceted perspective allows me to work with creative people from Central Asia and former Soviet Union countries in conjunction with Anglo-Saxon English-speaking countries. I understand both sides of the process and can find a certain approach, even if it’s sometimes difficult. Let’s say that my team and I are building land bridges with Eurasia.

OCA Magazine: Please tell us 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?
MA: The Eurasian Creative Guild (London) is a not-for-profit initiative of Silk Road Media Ltd. established in 2015. It grew out of the Open Eurasia Literary Contest, which I’ve run as a publisher to find and support talented writers. By the way, the contest is still held annually and remains the largest and oldest independent non-governmental literary contest of Eurasia. And every year we give up to ten grants of $5,000 to the winners to publish their books in the UK.

OCA Magazine: What is your motivation and the main aim of your creativity?
MA: I have many things that motivate me to do what I do. My children who look up to me, my friends, people who have become successful thanks to me, people who have passed on their family’s heritage to the world, and many more. And of course I enjoy my life. I travel a lot, meet new interesting people, create some new things that no one has ever done before, and that makes me happy.

OCA Magazine: What advice or wishes would you give to the members of the Guild and other creative people who are just starting their careers?

MA: Stay curious and greedy about your life, the world you live in, and the people around you. That is how creativity works. Nothing can come out of boring things if you don’t look for a way to change it and do it actively (not like ‘oh, if everything could be different…’). Find a crazy dream, build a crazy team and change this crazy world for the better.