Nobel Prize-winner Alexievich visits Kraków festival
PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge
20.10.2015 16:56
Svetlana Alexievich, the Belarusian winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, has visited Kraków in southern Poland for the annual Joseph Conrad Festival.
Svetlana Alexievich (L) at the Conrad Festival, Kraków. Photo: PAP/Jacek Bednarczyk
Alexievich, who writes in Russian, told an audience on Monday that “life does not have to be taken very seriously.
“But remember that there is only one, and that it is an interesting adventure.
“There is no need to rush,” she added
The writer revealed that her next two books will be about love and old age, stressing that happiness in love is generally fleeting.
Alexievich, who won acclaim for her non-fiction oral histories, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature “for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time.”
The Conrad Festival, although hosted in the city where Polish-born Joseph Conrad (Józef Korzeniowski) lived for a time as a young man, casts its net wide to include many aspects of world literature.
Besides Alexievich, this year's guests include Jonathan Franzen, Robert Coover and Lithuania's Tomas Venclova.
The festival ends on 25 October. (nh/rk)