Zozuliak, Vasyl

Zozuliak, Vasyl [Зозуляк, Василь; Zozuljak, Vasyl'], b 19 September 1909 in Chertizhne, Zemplén komitat, Transcarpathia, d 15 May 1994 in Brno, Czech Republic. Writer. He graduated from the teachers' seminary in Mukachevo (1937) and worked as a teacher. He became the cultural-educational secretary of the Ukrainian People's Council of the Prešov Region (1947–9) and the Association of Czechoslovak-Soviet Friendship (1949–52) and then served, until his retirement, as director of the publishing house of the Cultural Association of Ukrainian Workers and of the Ukrainian department of the Slovak Publishing House of Artistic Literature. He first wrote in Russian, in which language he published two books of plays (1953) and a novel (1956). From the mid-1950s he wrote, in Ukrainian, many didactic plays, collected in the book Za chyste nebo (For a Clear Sky, 1983); the satire, humor, and play collection Buvaie i tak (It Also Happens Thus, 1957); the epic novel Neskoreni (The Undaunted, 3 vols, 1962, 1966, 1974); the novelette collections Na krutykh povorotakh (On Sharp Turnarounds, 1975) and Nezlamni kryla (Unbreakable Wings, 1977); the short story collections Svitlo i tini (Light and Shadows, 1971) and Khmary i zori nad Beskydom (Clouds and Stars over the Beskyd, 1986); and the novel Metamorfozy (Metamorphoses, 1979). His plays have been staged by the Prešov Ukrainian National Theater.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 5 (1993).]