Polina Stepanenko writes fiction. In August 1998 she gave up her work in the Museum of Literature in Minsk and joined Wiasna (“Spring”) which is a famous human rights centre.
Andri Janushkievich is a historian and a writer of non-fiction. His main field of studies is the history of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the beginning of the 16th century. In 2014 he established his own publishing house. On May 16, 2022 his publishing house opened the bookshop but it was open only for one day. Janushkievich and Nasta Karnatska who helped in the bookshop were arrested for 30 days under false accusations. The real reason for the arrest was opening the bookshop which was Belarusian centre of culture.
Polina Stepanenko and Andri Janushkievich take part in the residency programme “Talks will be continued – Polish/Ukrainian/Belarusian programme for the writers from Belarus”.
The residency programme is financially supported by the Borderland Foundation, the Genshagen Foundation, Germany and the Belarusian PEN- Club.
Andri Khadanovich, who is the host of the meeting, is a poet, translator and essayist. He has translated poetry from English (Emily Dickinson,W.B. Yeats, W.H. Auden) Polish (K.I. Gałczyński, Czesław Miłosz, Zbigniew Herbert, Jan Twarowski, Ryszard Krynicki, Ewa Lipska, Bohdan Zadura), Russian (Brodsky, Aigi, Sedokova) Ukrainian (Yuri Andrukhovych, Serhiy Zhadan) and French (Baudelaire, Apollinaire). He is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Лісты з-пад коўдры [Letters from under the Blanket] (2004), Несымэтрычныя сны [Nonsymmetrical Dreams] (2010), and a poetry book for children Нататкі таткі [Father’s Notes]. He he has had his work translated into 14 languages.
The Borderland Publishing House published the selection of his poetry.