Olga Valoshkina

Residence:

LITERARY RESIDENCIES IN WARSAW FOR WRITERS, PLAYWRITERS AND TRANSLATORS FROM BELARUS AND UKRAINE | 2025

Literary pseudonym of the author living in Belarus. She writes essays,
fiction prose, plays.

 

“I was formed by the post-Soviet 1990s – a time of political and economic chaos, freedom and the establishment of the Belarusan dictatorship. I am still close to postmodernism and black humor, in fiction prose I am interested in combining elements of genre literature with political and social issues.

 

Today, literary writing has also become a way for me to work through the trauma of 2020, when Belarusians became victims and witnesses of state violence, the experience of living under dictatorship, and the fear of repression. I have stayed in the country, walking the streets of my hometown, listening to what Belarusians talk about, collecting stories and evidence. Often I write in the desk and for the future.

 

In the art residence I want to finish a novel about life in Belarus after 2020. It combines elements of political thriller and macumentary and explores both the nature of dictatorship and nostalgia for the Soviet era and contemporary tries to restore the cult of Stalin.”