Alexievich

Svetlana Alexievich, born May 31, 1948, in Ivano-Frankivsk in the Ukrainian SSR, is a Belarusian journalist and writer known for her documentary, oral-history approach to literature. Writing primarily in Russian, she became a prominent figure in Belarusian and post-Soviet literary culture.

Alexievich trained as a journalist at the Belarusian State University in Minsk and pursued a long career reporting for newspapers and radio. She gained international recognition for a series of heavily researched, multi-voiced books that collect and organize the testimonies of ordinary people to illuminate larger historical events.

Her best-known works include The Unwomanly Face of War, a portrait of women's experiences in World War II, The Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future (often published in English under Voices from Chernobyl), which reconstructs the impact of the 1986 disaster through oral testimonies, and Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets, an extensive account of life in the late Soviet and post-Soviet era through personal recollections. These works are noted for their polyphonic technique, focusing on memory, trauma, and the human costs of political upheaval.

In 2015, Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” Her work has been translated into many languages and widely regarded for expanding the possibilities of literary reportage and documentary fiction.