Halyna Vdovychenko

Halyna Vdovychenko is a Ukrainian writer and a member of Ukrainian PEN. She is the author of eight novels, a collection of short prose, and fifteen children’s books. She is the recipient of the top prizes of the international literary competition Coronation of the Word in the categories Novel (2009), Grand Coronation of the Word (2015), and Children’s Prose (2012). Her novel Bora was shortlisted for the BBC Book of the Year Award (2011), while her children’s novel The Odd Sock League was shortlisted for the same award in 2013. Her children’s book 36 and 6 Companion Cats was shortlisted for the Lviv UNESCO City of Literature Prize (2020). Her children’s book The Owl Who Wanted to Become a Lark was selected for the White Ravens international catalogue (2019). The Latvian translation of 36 and 6 Cats was included in Latvia’s Children, Youth and Parents Jury Collection (2021). She has been nominated three times for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award (ALMA) (2024, 2025, and 2026). Her books and excerpts from her works have been translated into Latvian, Lithuanian, German, Slovak, Georgian, Chinese, Belarusian, English, Czech, and Japanese. Halyna Vdovychenko was born in Pechenga (Petsamo), on the Kola Peninsula beyond the Arctic Circle. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. She began her career as a journalist for the newspaper Vpered in Bakhmut (then Artemivsk), Donetsk region, and until 2017 served as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Lviv newspaper Vysokyi Zamok. Since 2021, she has divided her time between Lviv, Ukraine, and Idstein-Walsdorf, Germany.

Among her best-known books are the novels Half an Apple. The Other Half of an Apple, The Most Important Thing Comes at the End, The Mariupol Trial, Tamdevin, Bora, The Bather, Who Is Ihor?; the short story collection Here Is an Open Palm; and the children’s books 36 and 6 Cats (series), 36 and 6 Dogs, The Odd Sock League, The Black Black Hen, Fall Asleep. Wake Up, The Mice of the Little Mouse, The Cat House, Mistelves, The Owl Who Wanted to Become a Lark, The Lives of Toy Sheep, Butterflies Transform, and Tales 2022.