A meeting with Svetlana Alexievich in Warsaw brought together about 500 people—those inspired by the word and searching for meaning in an unsettled time.
On June 16, the Nobel laureate and honorary chair of PEN Belarus, Svetlana Alexievich, met with her readers in Warsaw. The conversation took place in a welcoming theater space, made possible thanks to the co-organizer of the event, the New Theatre, in partnership with the City of Warsaw, and with the support of the Swedish Institute, which helped arrange Svetlana’s visit to Warsaw.
The audience asked the Nobel laureate about her two promised books—one about love and one about old age. Svetlana admitted that for now they have been postponed:
“As for the books about love and old age—they are being put aside because I still can’t sort out the ‘red man’—I have to finish writing about him and see what comes of it. The working title of the new book is Waiting for the New Barbarians. It’s perfectly clear that hard times are ahead of us… Everyone must strengthen the potential for resistance. Learn from powerful books, learn from strong people.”
The meeting was moderated by Taciana Niadbaj, a Belarusian writer, translator, human rights defender, chair of the Council of the Belarusian Human Rights House named after Barys Zvozskau and chair of Belarusian PEN, and Justyna Czechowska, a Polish translator of Swedish and Norwegian literature and cultural figure. She is the recipient of the Wisława Szymborska Award (2018) and the Swedish Academy Award for Translators (2023).
Svetlana Alexievich with the moderators of the meeting, Taciana Niadbaj and Justyna Czechowska, as well as translator Maryia Lutsevich-Napalkava. Photo by PEN Belarus
At the meeting, there were PEN’s symbolic Empty Chairs—for those whose voices cannot, but must, be heard. Together with us in the hall, symbolically, were: Mikola Dziadok, writer and anarchist activist, sentenced to 5 years in prison; Uladzimir Matskevich, philosopher, methodologist, essayist, publicist, and civic leader, sentenced to 5 years in prison; Maksim Znak, lawyer, poet, bard, and writer, sentenced to 10 years in prison; Katsiaryna Andreyeva, journalist and writer, sentenced to 8 years in prison; Ales Bialiatski, Nobel laureate, writer, and human rights defender, sentenced to 10 years in prison.
After the meeting, Svetlana spent almost an hour and a half signing books for her supporters in the theater foyer.
We thank everyone who came to the event for their attention and their sincere, warm responses.
During the meeting, Svetlana noted: “Right now I am recording the stories of people who took part in the Belarusian revolution.”
And we want to sincerely thank the Staromejski Dom Kultuy and the Dom Spotkań z historią for providing spaces where truth was spoken for the new book and a new history was being born.
