Svetlana Alexievich was named the 2015 Nobel Laureate in literature on Thursday, earning a new level of global fame and exposure for her work. If like many others you haven’t heard of her before, here are a few facts about the Belarusian writer and journalist:
Background: Alexievich is Belarusian, but was born in Ukraine in 1948. (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.
Subject matter: She focuses on stories about war, conflict and tragedy, often using the Soviet Union or former Soviet countries as the backdrop. She has written about World War II, the Soviet-Afghan War and the Chernobyl disaster.
Approach: Alexievich is a master of oral histories, interviewing soldiers, women and civilians about their experiences and rendering their stories in a literary form. “I’ve been searching for a genre that would be most adequate to my vision of the world to convey how my ear hears and my eyes see life,” she writes on her website. “I tried this and that and finally I chose a genre where human voices speak for themselves.”
Controversy: Her criticism of the Belarusian government led to a period of persecution that included a phone tap and a ban on making public appearances. Because of this, she lived abroad for 10 years, mostly in Western Europe.
Nobel legacy: Alexievich becomes only the 14th woman to win the Nobel in literature, the first journalist and the first writer of primarily non-fiction to win in the last half-century.
Alexievich will receive her award at the Nobel ceremony on Dec. 10; Picador, which published the trade paperback edition of her book Voices From Chernobyl in English, said on Thursday that it has gone back to press on the edition, and it will also get an e-book release and a limited-run cloth edition from Dalkey Archive Press.
See the 20 Most Famous Nobel Peace Prize Laureates
Barack Obama, 2009
"For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"Brooks Kraft—CorbisMohamed ElBaradei, 2005Shared with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) "for their efforts to prevent nuclear energy from being used for military purposes and to ensure that nuclear energy for peaceful purposes is used in the safest possible way"Patrick Piel—Gamma-Rapho/Getty ImagesJimmy Carter, 2002"For his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development"Mario Tama—Getty ImagesKofi Annan, 2001Shared with the United Nations "for their work for a better organized and more peaceful world"Courtney Kealy—Getty ImagesShimon Peres, 1994"To honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East"Thomas Imo—Photothek/Getty ImagesYitzhak Rabin, 1994"To honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East"MENAHEM KAHANA—AFP/Getty ImagesYasser Arafat, 1994"To honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East"AHMED JADALLAH—ReutersNelson Mandela, 1993Shared with Frederik Willem de Klerk "for their work for the peaceful termination of the apartheid regime, and for laying the foundations for a new democratic South Africa"TREVOR SAMSON—AFP/Getty ImagesAung San Suu Kyi, 1991"For her non-violent struggle for democracy and human rights"EMMANUEL DUNAND—AFP/Getty ImagesMikhail Gorbachev, 1990"For his leading role in the peace process which today characterizes important parts of the international community"Diana Walker—The TIME & LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesThe Dalai Lama, 1989"In his struggle for the liberation of Tibet [he] consistently has opposed the use of violence. He has instead advocated peaceful solutions based upon tolerance and mutual respect in order to preserve the historical and cultural heritage of his people."Chris Langridge—Sygma/CorbisDesmond Tutu, 1984"[A] renewed recognition of the courage and heroism shown by black South Africans in their use of peaceful methods in the struggle against apartheid"David Levenson—Getty ImagesElie Wiesel, 1986"His belief that the forces fighting evil in the world can be victorious is a hard-won belief... based on his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps"Robert Maass—CORBISMother Teresa, 1979"The loneliest, the most wretched and the dying have, at her hands, received compassion without condescension, based on reverence for man"Jean-Claude FRANCOLON—Gamma-Rapho/Getty ImagesAnwar Sedat, 1978"For the Camp David Agreement, which brought about a negotiated peace between Egypt and Israel"Sahm Doherty—The TIME & LIFE Picture Collection/Getty ImagesHenry Kissinger, 1973"For the 1973 Paris agreement intended to bring about a cease-fire in the Vietnam war and a withdrawal of the American forces"Diana Walker—Getty ImagesMartin Luther King, Jr., 1964"First person in the Western world to have shown us that a struggle can be waged without violence"Gamma-Keystone/Getty ImagesJane Addams, 1931"[F]or her social reform work" and "leading the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom"Universal History Archive/Getty ImagesWoodrow Wilson, 1919"[F]or his crucial role in establishing the League of Nations"Bettmann/CorbisTheodore Roosevelt, 1906"[F]or his successful mediation to end the Russo-Japanese war and for his interest in arbitration, having provided the Hague arbitration court with its very first case"Hulton Archive/Getty Images