Svetlana Alexievich wins Nobel in Literature

Belarussian writer Svetlana Alexievich on Thursday won the 2015 Nobel Literature Prize, the Swedish Academy said. It honoured the 67-year-old “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.” Alexievich has drawn international acclaim with her emotional accounts of the Chernobyl disaster and World War II based on witness accounts. Chronicling such horrors in the first person through the words of witnesses, Alexievich has seen her works translated into numerous languages and scooped international awards.

But her books, controversially written in Russian, are not published in her home country, long ruled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, amid what the author has described as “a creeping censorship”. Alexievich, only the 14th woman to be awarded the Nobel literature prize, takes home the sum of eight million Swedish kronor (around USD 950,000 or 855,000 euros). The Nobel awards week continues on Friday with the other most closely-watched Nobel award, 

the peace prize.