Hanna Komar

Hanna Komar is a poet, translator and writer from Belarus, now based in London. She has published five poetry collections: Страх вышыні (Fear of Heights), the docu-poetry collection Мы вернемся (We’ll Return), and Вызвалі або бяжы (Set Me Free or Run) in Belarusian, as well as the bilingual collections Recycled and Ribwort. She has also written a nonfiction book Калі я выйду на волю (When I’m Out of Here) exploring the collective experience of incarceration following the 2020 peaceful protests in Belarus. In 2021, she was awarded the Freedom of Expression award by the Norwegian Authors’ Union.

Her writing lays bare what it means to grow up as a girl, and then a young woman, in a strongly patriarchal authoritarian country. Komar has always been drawn to difficult, often silenced topics: domestic abuse, childhood trauma, the complexities of family relationships and the ways patriarchy shapes our identities and lives. Through her work, she challenges taboos and break the silence around them. She has been vocal about issues of freedom, resistance and political violence in the context of Belarus’ ongoing struggles.

Hanna holds an MA in Creative Writing: Writing the City from the University of Westminster. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at the University of Brighton, exploring how poetry can support women in sharing experiences of gender-based violence and patriarchy, with a focus on domestic abuse and state violence.

Her debut play, Body in Progress, was staged at the Voila! Theatre Festival 2024 in London, where she also performed.