Which Belarusian writer won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for polyphonic writings?

Svetlana Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for her polyphonic writings, described by the Swedish Academy as a monument to suffering and courage in her time.

Alexievich was born in 1948 in Stanislav, then part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, and was raised in Belarus. Rather than writing conventional novels, she developed a documentary style built from interviews with people who experienced war, political repression, and social upheaval.

Her books include The Unwomanly Face of War, based on testimonies from Soviet women who served during the Second World War, and Voices from Chernobyl, which records the experiences of people affected by the 1986 nuclear disaster. Her oral-history method gives many individual voices a place within a larger historical narrative.

Alexievich became the first Belarusian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature. Her award is sometimes described as a journalism prize, but the Nobel recognized the literary construction and emotional power of her testimony-based works.