Svetlana Alexievich wins Nobel Literature Prize

Belarussian writer Svetlana Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel Literature Prize on Thursday, honoured for her work chronicling the horrors of war and life under the repressive Soviet regime.

The Swedish Academy hailed the 67-year-old "for her polyphonic writings, a monument to suffering and courage in our time".

Alexievich has drawn international acclaim for her moving accounts of Chernobyl, World War II and the war in Afghanistan crafted through thousands of interviews with men, women and children.

The Academy's permanent secretary Sara Danius said she had spoken to Alexievich, who reacted to the news with just one word: "Fantastic".

Alexievich, only the 14th woman to win the prize since it was first awarded in 1901, had been the top choice among literary observers and among the bookies' favourites.

Alexievich takes home the sum of eight million Swedish kronor (around $950,000 or 855,000 euros). The last woman to win was Canada's Alice Munro in 2013.

Alexievich has seen her works translated into numerous languages and has scooped several international awards. 

But her books, controversially written in Russian, are not published in her home country, long ruled by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, amid what the author has described as "a creeping censorship".

She began tape-recording accounts of female soldiers who took part in World War II while she was working as a local newspaper reporter in the 1970s. 

The resulting book, "War's Unwomanly Face", was long barred from publication because it focused on personal tragedies and did not emphasise the role of the Communist Party. It was finally published in 1985 under the perestroika reforms.

The Nobel awards week continues on Friday with the other most closely-watched Nobel award, the peace prize.

The economics prize will wrap up this year's Nobel season on October 12.

The laureates will receive their prizes at ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of prize creator Alfred Nobel, a Swedish philanthropist and scientist.