Hostyniak, Stepan

Hostyniak, Stepan [Гостиняк, Степан; Hostynjak], b 20 September 1941 in the village of Zbudský Rokytov in the Prešov region of eastern Slovakia. A leading Ukrainian poet in the Prešov region of Slovakia, he is the author of six poetry collections: Proponuiu vam svoiu dorohu (I Propose My Way to You, 1965), Lyshe dvoma ochyma (With Only Two Eyes, 1967), Virshi (Poems, 1972), Buket (Bouquet, 1979), Seismohraf (Seismograph, 1982), and Anatomiia druhoho oblychchia (The Anatomy of a Second Face, 1986). He has also published several short stories in the journal Duklia and elsewhere. His poetry is characterized by an almost prosaic directness. Everyday situations, objects of daily use, and simple ‘feelings’ provide the subject of his poems, which are most often renderings in free verse. For many years he worked at the Svydnyk Museum of Ukrainian Culture.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 2 (1988).]