G Mend-Ooyo (b1952) was born into a nomadic family. Trained as a teacher, and the second of Yavuuhulan's three main students, hehas now published over thirty books of poetry, criticism and essays, and has received numerous awards in recognition of his work to promote Mongolian culture.
Having worked with Mend-Ooyo for four years now, I have noticed that he is constantly writing, constantly thinking about how to encourage Mongolians to value their history and traditions. His basic thematic material can be seen from the text of Nomadic Lyrics (download below), translated by S Sumiya, Peter K Marsh and myself. Also available is the Prolog to Golden Hill, the work which regards as his magnum opus, and the one which he was most keen to have available in English. This is an extraordinary book - fiction and history and auto/biography and vision and poetry - and one which I think should find a publisher (adventurous publishers take note!) in Europe or the US.
Mend-Ooyo is foundera nd director of the Mongolian Academy of Poetry and Culture in Ulaanbaatar. He is developing a project to establish an international poetry center in the heart of Ulaanbaatar, dedicated to the memory of Yavuuhulan.
