Won National Book Critics Circle Award for "Voices from Chernobyl."
On January 24, 2006, the National Book Critics Circle announced that Svetlana Alexievich's "Voices from Chernobyl" had won the 2005 award for nonfiction. This honor celebrated her poignant exploration of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster through a collection of firsthand accounts. The book’s candid testimonies depicted the profound human and environmental impact of the catastrophe—a narrative that had been largely invisible on the global stage—reinforcing Alexievich’s unique role in expanding the boundaries of documentary literature.