Belarusian Svetlana Alexievich wins Nobel Prize for literature

Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature on Thursday for works that the prize judges called “a monument to suffering and courage.”

Alexievich, 67, used the skills of a journalist to create literature chronicling the great tragedies of the Soviet Union and its collapse: World War II, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the suicides that ensued from the death of Communism.

“By means of her extraordinary method — a carefully composed collage of human voices – Alexievich deepens our comprehension of an entire era,” the Swedish Academy said on Thursday in awarding the $972,000 prize.

Her first novel, “The Unwomanly Face of the War,” published in 1985 and based on the previously untold stories of women who had fought against the Nazi Germans, sold more than 2 million copies.

Her books have been published in 19 countries. She also has written three plays and the screenplays for 21 documentary films. The Swedish Academy cited Alexievich “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”

“She has invented a new literary genre. She transcends journalistic formats and has pressed ahead with a genre that others have helped create,” said Sara Danius, permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. “If you remove her works from the shelves there would be gaping holes. That says a lot about how original she is.”

The daughter of two village schoolteachers and born in Ukraine, Alexievich studied journalism in Belarus, which at the time was part of the Soviet Union. She now lives in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, and like many intellectuals supports the political opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is up for re-election on Sunday.

Last year's literature award went to French writer Patrick Modiano.

This year's Nobel announcements continue with the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday and the economics award on Monday. All awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.

Al Jazeera and wire services