Svetlana Alexandrovna Alexievich is a Belarusian author, investigative journalist, and oral historian who writes in Russian. She was awarded the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time". She is the first writer from Belarus to receive the award. The Nobel Prize in Literature 2015, announced October 8, 2015. Svetlana Alexievich, “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time”. Svetlana Alexievich: born 1948, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. Wiki link Data: the Nobel Foundation (CC0).