Writer Svetlana Aleksiyevich
Journalist and Book Author (name also spelled, "Śviatłana Aleksiejevič," "Alexievich," and "Sviatlana Aleksieyevich")
(born: May 31, 1948)
![[ Photograph: S. Aleksiyevich, 1989 ]](aleksiyevich-s.jpg)
Writer Svetlana AleksiyevichJournalist and Book Author (name also spelled, "Śviatłana Aleksiejevič," "Alexievich," and "Sviatlana Aleksieyevich")
(born: May 31, 1948)
|
|
Photo Credit: The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future (1997); frontispiece.
A very complete and detailed Web site about a Belarusian author and her work, awards, samples from her writing (English, Russian, etc.), links to other Web sites, etc. In English and Russian. Note: Web site refers to her as a "Russian" author.
"Svetlana Aleksiyevich, the renowned Belarusian writer who is the author of The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future and Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from a Forgotten War, will live in Florence, Italy, the next two years. Her stay will be financed by a European Union scholarship. She is to leave Belarus in late September [2000]."
"As Ms. Aleksiyevich told BelaPAN, she 'would like to spend some time in another world, far from my culture, the familiar space, the local system of values and see myself and every one of us from there.' "
"Ms. Aleksiyevich intends to complete the book, The Wonderful Deer of the Eternal Hunt, an anthem to love, by next spring. She has returned from Japan, where she participated in work on the documentary A Small Man and a Great Utopia, which is being made by Japan's NHK television company within the framework of a project called 'The 20th Century in Russia. Utopia Country.' The documentary is about Ms. Aleksiyevich's own destiny and the destinies of her characters. It has been filmed in Belarus, Ukraine, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and the Urals. The 75-minute documentary will be shown in Japan in October."
"German filmmakers have recently completed work on a similar project, Ms. Aleksiyevich said."
"She expressed content that The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future had been published in Belarusian. She said that the book's publication in Belarusian had become possible with the assistance of Sergei Zakonnikov, editor-in-chief of the magazine Polymya, the United Nations, Germany's Bremen-based organization, Life After Chernobyl, and a Dutch charity. The book has already come out in 14 countries."
"A book-launch evening [for the new Belarusian language edition of The Chornobyl Prayer ] will take place at the House of Friendship in Minsk on September 13."
"Ms. Aleksiyevich was born in Ukraine in 1948. She grew up in Belarus and currently lives in Minsk. She has written about women and war, Afghan war veterans, and suicide. She spent 4 years in a radioactively contaminated area collecting material for The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future which was released in 1997. Ms. Aleksiyevich was awarded Russia's Triumph Prize at the beginning of 1998. She was also awarded the European Understanding Prize for her contribution to a better understanding among European nations and the development of European thought."
"Republican social literature-artistic fund Gronka published documentary story The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future by Svetlana Aleksievich. This story was published with the help of the UN's office in Belarus."
"The story is a kind of a peculiar prayer of the witnesses of the disaster and its consequences. In the victims' monologues -- pain and attempts to interpret the tragedy years after."
"The circulation of the book is not very large -- 1200 copies. Mikola Gil translated it into the Belarusian language."
"The Chornobyl Prayer, a book by renown Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, was presented in Finnish translation in Helsinki. The book attracted a lot of attention and press coverage. It has been translated into 20 foreign languages, yet is poorly known at home in Belarus."
"Slavery rites have sunk into the Belarusians' conscience, said Svetlana Aleksiyevich, a well-known Belarusian writer, in an interview to RTR, Russia's state television network, broadcast on May 31. The interview was timed to coincide with her 50th birthday and receipt of a German prize for the best political book of the year, The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future."
"'The fear has returned to the Belarusians very quickly, as if there were no Gorbachev's 5-year pause,' Ms Aleksiyevich said. The point is not in certain individuals, but in the people. 'Too few people want to live in a different way, or would be ready to,' she added. She pointed out that those in power 'provoke the worst [qualities] in the people,' and that 'slavery rites are so deep-rooted in Belarusian culture and conscience, that, I believe, it is not very soon that we will be free.'"
"Svetlana Aleksiyevich, a well-known Belarusian writer, has been awarded the European Understanding Prize for her contribution to a better understanding among European nations and the development of European thought. Explaining its choice the jury wrote, 'Thanks to her we learned a lot about the spiritual state of various people in disintegrating Soviet society,' according to the German Embassy in Mensk."
"Ms. Aleksiyevich was the fifth winner of a prize founded by Sachsen, Leipzig, and the Exchange Union of the German Book Trade. Aleksiyevich received a prize of DM 20,000. DM 10,000 and 5,000 were handed to translators of her book."
"Ms. Aleksiyevich was born in Ukraine in 1948. She grew up in Belarus and currently lives in Mensk. She has written about women and war, Afghan war veterans, and suicide. She spent 4 years in a radioactively contaminated area collecting material for her book, The Chornobyl Prayer: The Chronicle of the Future, released in 1997. Ms Aleksiyevich was awarded Russia's Triumph Prize at the beginning of 1998."