She was forced to leave Belarus in 2000 for political reasons, and was only allowed to return in 2011.
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Alexievich suffered persecution in Belarus during the Alexander Lukashenko years: Her books were censored, her phoned was bugged, and she was banned from doing public appearances.
After the award was given out, Danius praised Alexievich as an “extraordinary writer” who has actually devised a new kind of literary genre.
Sara Danius says Svetlana Alexievich “is offering us new and interesting historical material and she has developed a particular writing style, as well a new literary genre”. (Her mother is Ukrainian.) When her father finished his military service, the family moved back to Belarus, where Alexievich studied journalism at the University of Minsk, according to the BBC.
Author Svetlana Alexievich, who was awarded the prize for her portrayal of life in the former Soviet Union, said she had wept when she saw photographs of those shot dead during street protests in Kiev in February 2014 against a Moscow-leaning president. But he said a few years ago people started talking up singer/songwriter Bob Dylan for the award, and he went from 100th on the list to having the best odds, though he didn’t win.
The Belarusian journalist was awarded the prize by the Swedish Academy Thursday. Alexievich’s prize breaks that long dry spell. “On the one hand, it’s such a fantastic feeling, but it’s also a bit disturbing”.
The subsequent pro-Russian separatist uprising in eastern territories, which has killed over 8,000 people, was a result of foreign interference, she said, pointing the finger at Russia.
She was ironing at home when she got the news, and said that the cash prize (around $1.2 million) would “buy her freedom” for her next books. “I usually spend three to four years writing a book, but this time it took me more than ten years”.
“I have two ideas for new books so I’m pleased that I will now have the freedom to work on them”.
“All of my books consist of witnesses’ evidence, people’s living voices”, she told the Dalkey Archive Press.
Her first book, “War’s Unwomanly Face”, published in 1985, was based on the previously untold stories of women who had fought against Nazi Germany.
“For the past 30 or 40 years, [Alexievich] has been busy mapping the Soviet and post-Soviet individual”, the Nobel secretary continued. Because of this, she lived overseas for 10 years, mostly in Western Europe.
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Belarusian writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich was on Thursday named the victor of the 2015 Nobel Prize for literature.
