November 14, 2021
She translated into Belarusian English-language texts about Belarus by Timothy Snyder and other researchers, including the largest English-language text about Belarusian literature (and about Belarus in general) by Arnold McMillin Writing in a Cold Climate: Belarusian Literature from the 1970s to the Present Day), as well as works by Virginia Woolf, William Golding, Tennessee Williams, Dan Brown, Paul Auster, Harold Pinter, Tony Parsons, Arthur Golden, Margaret Atwood, and other British and American authors. The translations were published in the magazines Krynica; Dziejaslou; ARCHE.
Together with Iłona Urbanovič and Zmicier Saŭk, she translated Gladiator (2000), cartoons Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2004) and other. Between 2010 and 2015 she translated movies for the Belsat TV channel, including An Ideal Husband (1999), The Smith Family (2002), Nurse Betty (2000), Richard III (1995).
In 2011, she received the PrajdziSviet Magazine’s Translation Award for the for the best translation in the field of prose.
On January 15, 2021, Volha Kałackaja was arrested and placed in the Akrescina Detention Center in Minsk, then transferred to Prison No. 8 in Žodzina, and ended up in Pre-trial Detention Center No. 1 in Minsk. At first, she was held as a suspect under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order or active participation in them). Later, Volha Kałackaja was accused of malicious hooliganism (Article 339 of the Criminal Code) – allegedly, during one of the peaceful protests, she twice slapped the propagandist of the STB channel, Ryhor Azaronak. Volha Kałackaja waited for the trial behind bars.
In March 2021, the criminal case was considered by the Criminal Court of Minsk. On March 24, Judge A. Skuratovič sentenced the translator to two years of home confinement.
In May 2021, the Investigative Committee cancelled the decision to stop the proceedings under Art. 342 of the Criminal Code (organization and preparation of actions that grossly violate public order or active participation in them) against translator Volha Kałackaja. As a result, Volha Kałackaja is again a suspect under this article of the Criminal Code and is under recognizance not to leave.
The American PEN (PEN America) and the famous Canadian writer Margaret Atwood demanded the immediate release of Volha Kałackaja.
Behind bars, Volha Kałackaja kept a diary, which she published on social networks.
On December 11, 2022, she finished serving a two-year sentence in the form of home confinement.