Belarusian writer Svetlana Alexievich, 67, won the Nobel Prize for literature 2015. She became the 14th woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901. The last woman to win the award was Canada's Alice Munro, who won in 2013.
The investigative journalist, ornithologist and prose writer used her journalistic skills to create literature chronicling the great tragedies of the Soviet Union and its collapse: World War II, the Soviet war in Afghanistan, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster and the suicides that resulted from the death of Communism.
Inspired by the writer Ales Adamovich, Alexievich has written short stories, essays, and reports. Her most notable works in English translation are about first-hand reports from the war in Afghanistan "Zinky Boy" and a highly appreciated history of the Chernobyl disaster "Voices from Chernobyl."
Alexievich was living in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, at the time of the Chernobyl disaster."Voices from Chernobyl," was also awarded the 2005 National Book Critics Circle Award for general non-fiction.
Alexievich's first novel, "The Unwomanly Face of the War," published in 1985 and based on the previously untold stories of women who had fought against the Nazi Germans, sold more than 2 million copies. Her books have been published in 19 countries, NBC News reported.
Alexievich also has written three plays and the screenplays for 21 documentary films. The Nobel Prize's official website cited Alexievich "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time."
All awards will be handed out on Dec. 10, the anniversary of prize founder Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.