Lesya Stepovichka Poet, novelist, translator, publicist Date of Birth: 21.02.1952 Country: Ukraine

Biography of Lesya Stepovychka

Lesya Stepovychka is a poet, prose writer, translator, and journalist. She was born on May 21, 1952, in the village of Petrykivka, Tsarychansky district, Dnipropetrovsk region. After finishing school, she worked as a factory worker. In 1976, she graduated with honors from the Romance-Germanic Department of the Faculty of Philology at Dnipropetrovsk State University (DSU) and completed her postgraduate studies. She also holds a Ph.D. in Germanic Studies.

Stepovychka worked as a German language teacher at DSU and the Foreign Languages Department of Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute. She completed conference interpreter courses in 1998 and worked in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, and Belgium. She is the author of several poetry books, including "Galatea," "Piemont is Not Far," "Standing on a Star Draft," and "Meditations of Bird's Wing." She has also written the novels "Rara avis" and "Marriage with a Glass of Pilsner Beer" (in Ukrainian and Russian).

Additionally, Stepovychka has translated A. Krylov's fairy tale book "Kater Basilio" into German. She is a co-author of the collections "Lviv in the Hearts of Sicheslavtsev" and "Moons of the Heart, Love Lyrics of the 20th Century." Her poems have been published in Australia, the United States, Russia, and Israel.

Stepovychka is the project author, head of the editorial board, and compiler of the book of essays "Word about Literature and Writers of the Dnieper Region" (Dnipropetrovsk, 2005) and the project author and compiler of the book "Shevchenkiana of the Dnieper Region" (Dnipropetrovsk, 2008). She has also co-compiled the book "And Our People Fell Like Mown Wheat... Holodomor 1932-1933 in the Dnipropetrovsk Region" (in Ukrainian) together with A. Ratner and N. Chaban.

Since 2002, Stepovychka has been the Chairperson of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Organization of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine (NSPU) and a member of the NSPU Presidium in Kyiv. She is the founder and chief editor of the literary and artistic magazine "Sicheslav."

Stepovychka has been awarded the Honorary Diploma "For Achievements in the Development of Culture and Arts of Ukraine" (2003) and the Honorary Diploma of the NSPU (2004, 2008). She has also received gratitude from the President of Ukraine, V. Yushchenko, for active participation in the Orange Revolution (2005). Stepovychka is a Merited Worker of Culture of Ukraine (2007).