Ivan NAVUMENKA, a prose writer and literary critic, was born in February 16, 1925 in the town of Vasilevichy in the Homel region. He was the son of a railway worker. During WWII he was a member of the underground and one of the people involved in the liberation of his native town from the Nazis. He fought on the Leningrad and 1st Ukrainian fronts. After the war he worked as a newspaper correspondent and also studied at the faculty of philology at the Belarusian State University. Naumenko is a doctor of philology, a professor and the Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (1980). He was also chosen as a Deputy to the Supreme Council of Belarus (1985 - 1990).

His first work was published in 1955. He is the author of numerous collections of stories, including The Poplar of Youth, Veronica, That Very Land, Forty-Three, and The Sadness of White Nights, and also of a number of critical essays, including From the Heart of Life, The Writer-Democrat, Yanka Kupala and The Profile of a Hero, Yakub Kolas. His first stories are simple and in many ways are autobiographical, yet very touching and lyrical. His later works show a more mature, epic style with depiction of current social and ethical problems. They have been translated into several languages.

Ivan Navumenka is a holder of the Komsomol Award (1967), and a winner of the Yakub Kolas Prize (1972), in 1978 he was given the title of 'Honorary Worker of Science of Belarus'.

Uladzimir NIAKLIAYEU, a poet, prose writer and literary critic, was born into a middle class family, in 1946, in the city of Smarhon, Hrodna region. In 1962-1966 he studied in the Minsk Community College of Communications and then worked as a radio mechanic at a television repair shop. He was also educated at Literary Institute (1971), poetry department and took a correspondence course through the philological department of Minsk Teachers Training College (graduating in 1973). In 1972-1975 he was on staff of Znamia Yunosti, then in 1975-1978 he edited the bulletin Teatralny Minsk. In 1978 he was the editor-in-chief of the main division of literary and drama works for Belarusian TV. Since 1987 he was the editor-in-chief of Krynitsa literary magazine which had a circulation of several hundreds thousand copies in the 1980s and played a very significant part in reviving Belarusian culture through youth. In 1998 he was the Head of Litaratura i Mastatsva. He is a member of the Belarusian PAN centre and for the last three years he has been residing in Finland.

His first poems appeared in print in 1970 and were followed by several books of poetry. The poetry is very well thought through, condensed and complex in its imagery. He has also written essays, critical articles and a play.

He was awarded the 'Sign of Honor Order' and Comsomol Prize (1979).