Valzhyna
Mort

Born in Minsk, Belarus (former Soviet Union). Her debut collection in America, Factory of Tears (2008), received acclaim: the New Yorker writes, “Mort strives to be an envoy for her native country, writing with almost alarming vociferousness about the struggle to establish a clear identity for Belarus and its language.” She received the Crystal of Vilenica award in Slovenia in 2005 and the Burda Poetry Prize in Germany in 2008. She teaches at Cornell University and lives in the U.S.A.

Photograph © Kapitonova