Svetlana Alexievich, a renowned author, was born on May 31, 1948, in Stanislav, Ukraine, to a Ukrainian mother and a Belarusian father. After completing high school, she worked as a reporter at several local newspapers. Alexievich pursued higher education and graduated from Belarusian State University in 1972, becoming a correspondent for the literary magazine Nyoman in Minsk.
Alexievich's work primarily focuses on depicting life during and after the Soviet Union through the experiences of individuals. She is known for her unique approach of using interviews to create a collage of voices, which she refers to as "documentary novels." This style of writing places her in the boundary between reporting and fiction. Her major works, including "The Unwomanly Face of War" (1985), "Last Witnesses" (1985), "Zinky Boys" (1990), "Voices from Chernobyl" (1997), and "Secondhand Time" (2013), have earned her numerous international awards, including the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Throughout her career, Alexievich has been critical of political regimes in the Soviet Union and Belarus, which has periodically forced her to live in exile in Western Europe. Despite the challenges, she has remained committed to her craft, using her writing as a means to shed light on the suffering and courage of people during critical historical moments. Her work serves as a monument to the experiences of individuals and their resilience in the face of adversity.