Bakhytzhan Musakhanuli Kanapyanov (Kazakh: Бақытжан Мусаханұлы Қанапиянов, Baqytjan Musahanūly Qanapiianov; born October 4, 1951) is a Kazakh poet, writer, publisher, and translator. Kanapyanov is a member of the Russian and the Kazakh PEN clubs, an honorary professor at the Shakarim University (Semey) and an academician of the Crimean Literary Academy (Simferopol, Crimea).
Kanapyanov was born on October 4, 1951, in Kokshetau to a teacher. He went to school in the village of Sirimbet, where the family estate of the scholar and historian Shoqan Walikhanov (1835–1865), who is related to the poet, was located. After his initial education, Kanapyanov became a metallurgical engineer. He then completed higher courses for directors and screenwriters in Moscow in the class of Emil Lotianu, and then higher literary courses at the Association of Writers of the USSR at the seminars of Alexander Mezhirov.
Kanapyanov worked as a research engineer at the Institute of Metallurgy of the Academy of Sciences of the Kazakh SSR, and also as a screenwriter, director and editor in the film studios "Kazakhfilm" and "Mosfilm", produced in Kazakhstan. In 1971 he met Olzhas Suleimanov, which influenced the further fate of the young poet.
He published his introductory poems in 1975 in the magazine "Space/Prostor", then he published poetry and poems in periodicals in many countries around the world. He is the author of more than thirty books of poetry and prose, which have been printed by Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain, Malaysia, Poland, France, Mongolia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Turkey.
Kanapyanov writes in Kazakh and Russian and is widely recognised for multicultural approach. He collected folk songs from across Kazakhstan and translated them into Russian, often revising and adopting them. One of the most famous translation – is the Kazakh national epic song Kyz-Zhibek. His translations into Russian include Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet, French poet Paul Valéry and ct. Among Kazakh poets translated and adopted by Kanapyanov are Abay Qunanbayuli, Jambyl Jabayev, Kenen Azerbayev, Shakarim Qudayberdiuli, Magzhan Zhumabayev.
He is the author of the idea of holding the World Poetry Day, which was heard for the first time in 1996 in Almaty, at the poetry evening of Andrey Voznesenskiy and Bela Ahmadulina.
His books were translated in more than 20 languages, including English, Finnish, Georgian, German, Korean, Polish, Malay, Yakut, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Belarusian and Ukrainian.
Bakhytzhan Kanapyanov is well-known as:
a member of the Kazakh and Russian PEN Club;
the secretary of the board of the Association of Writers of Kazakhstan;
a correspondent for "Literature newspaper" in the Republic of Kazakhstan;
a member of the board of the European Congress of Writers (Prague), which represents the region of Central Asia and Kazakhstan;
an honorary professor at the Shakarima University (Semipalatinsk);
an academician of the Crimean Literary Academy (Simferopol, Crimea). He is an academic of journalism in Kazakhstan;
participated in the repair of the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant (1986–1988).
«Nochnaya prohlada/Ночная прохлада» (1977)
«Otrazheniya/Отражения» (1979)
«Chuvstvo mira/Чувство мира» (1982)