Crossword Dictionary
Svetlana Alexievich
Svetlana Alexievich (born May 31, 1948) is a Belarusian journalist and prose writer, a Russian-language author of meticulously crafted works of depth and introspection that provided a compelling and uncompromising portrayal of the social and political upheaval within the Soviet Union from the postwar era to the fall of communism. She won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015.
One of a minority of laureates recognized as a dedicated writer of nonfiction, Alexievich devised a hybrid literary genre that evolved as “the closest possible approximation to real life,†wherein human voices were allowed to speak for themselves about the main events of the age. Her body of work constituted “a living history†of Soviet and post-Soviet culture that provoked controversy and official repudiation. The first Belarusian author and the 14th woman to win the literature prize, Alexievich was cited by the Swedish Academy “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.â€
Alexievich's works include:
- War’s Unwomanly Face (1985)
- The Last Witnesses: the Book of Unchildlike Stories (1985)
- Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War (1990)
- Bewitched by Death (1993)
- Voices from Chernobyl: Chronicle of the Future (1997)
- Second-Hand Time: The Last of the Soviets (2013)