Nobel Prize Day: Svetlana Alexievich wins the Nobel Prize for Literature

Svetlana Alexievich, from Belarus, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature on October 8, 2015. Alexievich, a journalist, specializes in compiling oral histories of major events in Russian history, including the female experience in World War II, the war with Afghanistan, and the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. The latter collection of interviews is the source of the vivid quotes below. Alexievich draws out details from her interview subjects that were kept hidden from the world at the time of the disaster and also gives her subjects room to express the emotional impact of the tragedy.