Poet, writer, public figure, Honorary President of Belarusian PEN-Center. Born in 1946, Studied in Technical School of Electronic Communication, Minsk (1962 - 1966), Literature Institute, Moscow (1971), graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Institute of Pedagogics, Minsk (1973).

Professional writer since 1970. Author of many books of poetry and prose, laureate of national and international awards. In 2011 was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Editor-in-Chief of various journals and newspapers, the Chairman of the Belarusian Union of Writers 1999-2001.

For political reasons, emigrated from Belarus in 1999 and lived in Warsaw and Helsinki. In 2004 returned to Minsk. In 2010 was the leader public campaign of the “Tell the Truth!” Ran for the presidential election as an independent candidate. On the day of the presidential election was attacked by security forces and imprisoned in an internal KGB prison. While in prison, wrote the book “Letters to Freedom,” which received an award from the Swedish PEN Center. Released from prison due to protests against his arrest by world cultural figures.

Due to the repressions that began in Belarus after the August revolution of 2020, was forced to leave the country. Lives and works in Poland.