This text, signed by the pseudonym E.V., closely describes the course of events surrounding the liquidation of the Belarusian PEN and the Writers' Union. The liquidation was part of the massive...
More than 36,000 people have been arrested in Belarus over the past year for political reasons. The author, Andrej Dyńko, is still under criminal investigation. His colleagues, the editors of Naša...
Dmitry Strotsev's poetry moves in its very own border country in between political themes, issues of power abuse, religiosity, and spirituality. He illustrates the government’s abusive violence and...
The Tucholsky Prize for 2021 is awarded to the Belarusian poet Dmitry Strotsev. The prize is awarded by Swedish PEN and is handed out today by the Minister for Culture of Sweden in connection to...
Near the Janka Kupala Park in central Minsk there is a statue of the child soldier and war hero Marat Kazei. Children play around the enormous stone fundament, on which the fourteen-year-old Kazei is...
Text: Nadya Kandrusevich-Shidlovskaya
February 07 2021
The array of theatres in Minsk when we lived there 1997-99 was perfect for a family with smaller children. Within walking distance, we had them in a row: the circus, the puppet theatre, the cinema...
We woke up. We heard voices calling us, we heard our own voices crying out. The people’s uprising in Belarus became a mighty wave erupting from somewhere that looked like nowhere, which wasn’t true...
“He blocked the sun.” This is what Uladzimir Njakljajeu said in 2012 when the then Swedish Ambassador Stefan Eriksson was forced to leave Belarus. The one blocked was of course the President. Yes, the...
In early September, the poet, musician, and PEN member Uladzimir Liankevich was arrested during a peaceful manifestation in Minsk. He was sentenced to six days in prison. He was again arrested in...
The crackdown on the peaceful protesters during the first days of August was strikingly violent. Many were arrested and beaten, at least one person was killed. In ”The Unprotected”, a series of poems...
Introducing a well-known author to a new audience is not easy. Let us therefore get it over and done with. Alherd Bakharevich is one of the best authors in Belarus. Despite the fact that he does not...
“ Can you work in Minsk these days? ” Johan Öberg asks Svetlana Alexievich. He is in Gothenburg, she is in Minsk, and they are speaking in a live interview - the finale of this year ’ s digital...
Conversation: Svetlana Alexievich & Johan Öberg
December 01 2020
On October 21, one of Belarus' foremost poets, Dmitry Strotsev (b. 1963) disappeared without a trace. The day after, his name appeared on a list of interns at the infamous Akrestsina Detention Centre...
Poems: Dmitry Strotsev
November 29 2020
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