Ribwort
In the embrace of poetry, Hanna Komar found solace, her art a lifeline. Ribwort offered a space to face pain, to heal like ribwort leaves on wounds. As she heals, she also becomes a medicinal leaf for others.In 2021, Hanna’s book was rejected by a publisher in her native Belarus, who feared that her protest poems would lead to further repression. Independent publishers suffered, books were labelled ‘extremist’, writers were persecuted and people imprisoned. The nation stood up against rigged elections and the violence that followed. It gave birth to an awakening, but it also struggled with learned helplessness and disillusionment.As well as protest poems, Komar’s book explores her relationship with her parents, with herself, with her lovers, with her homeland and with civil resistance. Each section has the healing touch of a ribwort. These pages bear witness to a journey of healing, hope and resilience amidst the storms that ravaged a nation’s soul.
Hanna Komar
Hanna Komar is a poet, translator, writer. She has published four 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 a bilingual collection Recycled. Her work has been translated into Polish, Ukrainian, Swedish, Norwegian, German, Czech, Lithuanian, Slovenian and Russian. She translates her work into English. Hanna is a member of PEN and Freedom of Speech 2020 Prize laureate from the Norwegian Authors’ Union. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Westminster. She is interested in using poetry to support Belarusian women to share experiences of gender based violence and patriarchy.
Author portrait © Katsiaryna Sharah