Nobel Prize in Literature 2015
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015 has been awarded to 67-year-old Belarusian author Svetlana Alexievich for her for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”.
- She is the 14th women and also first from Belarus to win the prize.
- She is first journalist to receive a Nobel literature prize.
She was born in 1948 in Stanislaviv, a town in Ukraine to a Belarusian Father and Ukrainian Mother. Later she moved to Belarus and completed her graduation in journalism. She worked as correspondent for a magazine in Minsk.
She published her book, ‘War’s Unwomanly Face’ in 1985. The book is based on the interviews conducted by her with hundreds of women who participated in World War-II.
She also wrote on the consequences of the 1968 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in her book, ‘Voices from Chernobyl: Chronicle of the Future’ in 2005, and of the Soviet Union’s 1979-89 war in Afghanistan in the book, Zinky Boys: Soviet voices from a forgotten war in 1992.
