Poet Irina Radzikhovskaya on the importance of modern literature, creative family and creative plans

Vitebchanka Irina Radzikhovskaya composes poems and writes prose in Russian and Belarusian. Reflections on the beauty of nature, human feelings, the interrelationship of times and historical memory – her melodic, soulful and at the same time deeply philosophical poems are heard both at literary evenings in her native land, numerous contests and projects, and on the pages of republican and local periodicals. A young talented poetess, a member of the Union of Writers of Belarus, the author of the collection of poems “Idolta” told where she draws ideas for her works and what tools to pay attention to aspiring authors.

Surprisingly, the family archive has been keeping the very first poem for 20 years, which was the beginning of the great literary path of the poetess. This was a homework assignment on Belarusian literature in the second grade. On the page of the school notebook, Irina diligently brought out her first lines dedicated to autumn - a time of year that she sincerely loves. Since then, she began to try herself in various competitions, experiment with genres, the girl recalls:

- In general, our family is not creative. My father played drums, my mother played accordion, my brother tried himself in literature - he wrote several prose novels and very deep philosophical white poems, my sister also wrote, one of her poems was printed in a collection. Therefore, my passion was very supported not only by the teachers at school, but also by my parents. They collected all the leaves and even napkins with draft sketches of poetry.

In Miorsk region, where Irina was born, her talent and creative successes were noticed in school years - the girl not only published in the district newspaper, but also became a member of the literary association at the editorial office. Later, publications began in regional and republican publications, as well as literary magazines and newspapers. In 2016, the 18-year-old girl became the author of the debut collection of poems “Idolta”, which was released in the series “Small Paezia Belarus”. A year later, a selection of poems was published in the almanac “Dzvina. Vitsebshchyna litaratura”, and the young poetess was accepted into the Union of Writers of Belarus. Now Irina’s works are dominated by philosophical lyrics. The girl tries to make every line of her reflections on life and observations resonate with the reader:

- My first collection turned out to be very sincere - about dreams and hopes, a bright future. And still this topic remains with me: I also talk about life, just now I look at it from different angles, based on life experience. Therefore, I am always interested in making new contacts, communicating with senior colleagues, aspiring authors. She took part in the first Forum of Young Writers of Belarus, where she got an opportunity for professional exchange of experience. Round table, master classes from famous writers, discussion of modern literary trends, work of sections on poetry and prose, meetings with editors of literary magazines, excursions were fruitful, we received a lot of new and useful knowledge. A graduate of the Faculty of Philology of P. M. Masherov Vitebsk State University recently became a student again - she entered the Institute of Advanced Training and Retraining of Masherov VSU on the specialty "psychology". The chosen direction is not just a tribute to fashion, Irina said: I am inspired by people, the world of human feelings, inner experiences has always been interesting. This knowledge is also invaluable for literature: they help not only better understand people, their actions, emotions, but also convey thoughts, pull out the most important thing from the depths, rethink values and convey them to readers. Despite my busy schedule, I have successfully combined these two areas in my life. Recently, I started working as a teacher of an integrated group in the Kirov kindergarten of Vitebsk district and also pay a lot of attention to creativity: I write in transport, on napkins, in notes on the phone - in short, whenever inspiration comes. I also have a good rest - I like to travel around Belarus, go out to nature with tents, sing songs to the guitar.

By the way, many works of the poetess can be heard performed by leading actors and announcers of Belarus in the mobile application of the large-scale national literary and artistic project “Chytanka”. This is a significant joint initiative of the Ministry of Information, the Union of Writers of Belarus and Belknig OJSC, which is published on the Culture channel of the Belarusian Radio. Recently, the guest of creative meetings and literary evenings also took part in the author’s program of the writer Naum Galperovich “Surazmoворtsy”, Irina’s poems were heard and in the program “Dyalogi Pra Culture”. At the same time, the poetess with special trepidation refers to the work of young writers. I am always happy to share my experience with new authors:

- Creative impresaes, literary venues and meetings with young people fill me with emotions and ideas for new literary achievements. A new manuscript of poems is ready. I am also working on a prose text. It will be a story in which I plan to combine and connect in a single sense several different life stories – personal and heard from others. For young people, now is a great time to promote: the state will always turn the shoulder, there are many contests where you can express yourself. A powerful tool is social networks, they give many opportunities to share creativity with like-minded people. The doors of literary magazines and newspapers are always open. The main thing is to believe in yourself and try, try, try