Janka Bryl

Janka (Yanka) Bryl ( _be. Янка Брыль, August 4 1917 – July 25 2006) was a Belarusian writer best known for his short stories.

Early life

Five years after Bryl was born in Odessa, Ukraine, the family moved back to the village of Zahora in his parents' native Kareličy District of Hrodna,cite web|title=Bryl's biography|url=http://www.belarus-misc.org/writer/ybryl.htm] then part of Poland (it is now in Belarus).

World War II

Bryl served in the Polish Navy at the beginning of World War II, and he was captured by the Germans in 1939. He escaped in 1941. After October 1942 he was a messenger for a partisan brigade, later becoming a scout for the partisan Komsomolets brigade. He edited the "Freedom Flag" newspaper, and authored various anti-Nazi leaflets. In October 1944 he moved to Minsk where he worked on several newspapers and magazines such as "Vozhyk" (Hedgehog), "Maladosc" (Youth), "Polymia" (Flame) as well as in the State Publishing House.

Career

Literature

Bryl's first story appeared in 1938 and his first short story collection appeared in 1946. The first collection of stories was called "Apaviadanni" (Stories). Bryl's books are mostly works of psychological fiction and his characters tend to be sensitive and prone to introspection. They were largely set in Belarusian villages and frequently about the people's fight against the Nazis.

Bryl was one of the older generation of Soviet writers who had begun their literary careers in Stalin's time but received a new lease on life in the late 1950s along with such contemporaries as Ivan Shamiakin and Ivan Mielezh.

He was awarded the USSR State Prize in 1952 and the Jakub Kolas Literature Prize in 1963. In 1981, he was awarded the honorific title of People's Writer of the Byelorussian SSR and in 1994 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.

References