Uładzimir Arłou


Uładzimir Arłou, known as U. A. Arlou is a Belarusian historian, writer, politician, and poet. He is chairman of the Belarusian PEN International.

Early life and career

Arłou attended in 1970 at middle school in Polotsk and in 1975, he studied history at the Belarusian State University in Minsk. He was a history teacher in a school in Novopolotsk from 1976 until 1986. He also worked as a contributing editor and correspondent for the newspaper Chimik. Since 1988, he was working as a lector in the publishing company Mastazkaja Litaratura. Since 1986, Arlou has been a member of Belorussian writer's association. In 1988, during the period of Perestroika, that he joined the Belarusian Popular Front. In 1989 he resigned from the CPSU. In 1992, he moved to the Belorussian Parliament twice as a deputy of BNP. Since 1997, Arlou has been working as an editor in the editoral board of the journal magazine Kryniza. His poems were published since 1976, first in the almanachs Blakitny lichtar and Milavisa. Beside his poems among other things a historical ethnographic work. In 1986, he was awarded the Belarusian Lenin Komsomol Prize for his novel Dobry dsen, maya Shypshyna and the Belarusian Democratic Republic 100th Jubilee Medal in 2019.

Personal life

Arlou is married to his wife and also has two sons. In 2010, he was honored in Gdańsk, Poland with literary prize "European Poet of Freedom".