Vdovychenko Halyna

Born June 21, 1959 in the village of Pechenga (Petsamo), the Murmansk region, Russian Federation. A. As a child with her family, she moved a lot, studied at schools in Ivano-Frankivsk, Nadvirna, Rava-Rus’ka, Moscow. Graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Lviv National University, worked in the newspapers "Vpered" in the city of Artemivsk (Bakhmut) of the Donetsk region and in the newspaper "Vysokyy Zamok" (Lviv).

Based between Lviv, Ukraine and Idstein-Walsdorf, Germany.

Halyna Vdovychenko is a Ukrainian author of novels and children's books, who has been nominated three years running – 2024, 2025, and 2026 – for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, one of the world's most significant honours in children's and youth literature. Her books and excerpts from her works have been translated into Latvian, Lithuanian, German, Slovak, Georgian, Chinese, Belarusian, English, Czech, and Japanese. Translations into Croatian, Turkish, and Macedonian are currently in preparation.

Her long-running 36 and 6 Cats series has become one of her most widely travelled works, translated abroad (including into Latvian, where it won a national children's book prize) and issued in Braille.

The 36 and 6 Cats series has been published in Latvian by Latvijas Mediji (Latvia), Lithuanian by Tyto alba (Lithuania), German by Mauke Verlag (Germany), Georgian by Sulakauri Publishing (Georgia), Belarusian by Knihazbor (Belarus), and Chinese by Beijing Publishing Group (China). Published titles include 36 and 6 Cats, 36 and 6 Cats Detectives, 36 and 6 Companion Cats, and The Cat House. Croatian publisher Jesenski i Turk has acquired the rights to 36 and 6 Cats, 36 and 6 Cat Detectives, 36 and 6 Companion Cats, 36 and 6 Rescue Cats, and The Cat House. Cudna Shuma (North Macedonia) has acquired the rights to 36 and 6 Cats, and Ephesus Publishing (Turkey) has acquired the rights to 36 and 6 Cats, 36 and 6 Cat Detectives, and 36 and 6 Dogs. Translation work is currently underway for the Croatian, The Owl Who Wanted to Be a Lark has been published in Slovak by Slniečkovo (Slovakia), and in a bilingual Ukrainian–German edition by Slavicum Verlag (Germany). A Polish edition will be published by Widnokrąg (Poland). Translation work is currently underway.