Hanna Komar

Hanna Komar is a Belarusian poet, translator, writer.

Hanna’s poetic work lays bare the experience of being a girl, then a young woman, growing up in a strongly patriarchal authoritarian country.

She has published five poetry collections: Страх вышыні [Fear of Heights], a collection of docu poetry Мы вернемся [We’ll Return] and Вызвалі або бяжы [Set Me Free or Run] in Belarusian, as well as bilingual collections Recycled and Ribwort and a non-fiction book Калі я выйду на волю [When I'm Out of Here]. 

Her work has been translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Czech, Lithuanian, Slovenian, Danish and Russian. She translates her work into English. 

A member of PEN Belarus and an honorary member of English PEN. Freedom of Speech 2020 Prize laureate from the Norwegian Authors’ Union.

Hanna has an MA in Creative Writing: Writing the City from the University of Westminster. She is taking a PhD at the University of Brighton, exploring how poetry can support Belarusian women to share their experiences of gender based violence and patriarchy.