Contents
Svetlana Alexievich
Creating books from eyewitness voices about war, Chernobyl and the Soviet aftermath.
The Unwomanly Face of War · Voices from Chernobyl
- Born
- 31 May 1948
- Birthplace
- Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
More people
Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich is a Belarusian writer whose Russian-language documentary books centre individual experience.
Early life
Belarus
Grew up there in a family of teachers.
Journalism
Studied at Belarusian State University.
Career
- 1970s
Reporting
Worked for newspapers and a literary magazine.
- 1985
First major book
Published women’s accounts of the Second World War.
- 2015
Nobel Prize
Received the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Selected work
The Unwomanly Face of War
Recorded women’s wartime experiences.
Voices from Chernobyl
Assembled accounts of the nuclear disaster’s aftermath.
Secondhand Time
Explored lives shaped by the Soviet Union’s collapse.
Beyond work
Exile
Political pressure led her to spend periods outside Belarus.
Public opposition
Joined Belarus’s opposition Coordination Council in 2020.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Nobel Prize biography and award ↗Photo: A.Savin. FAL · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
