Vsevolod Nestayko

Vsevolod Nestayko (Ukrainian: Всеволод Зіновійович Нестайко; 30 January 1930^[1] – 16 August 2014^[2][3]) was a modern Ukrainian children's writer.^[3] In Ukraine he is considered the country's best-known and best loved Ukrainian children’s literature writer.^[4][3][1][2]

Biography

During World War I Nestayko's parents were on opposite sides of the front.^[3] His father was a Sich Riflemen (of the former Austro-Hungarian army) and later a member of the Ukrainian Galician Army; his mother was a teacher of Russian literature and nurse in the Russian Imperial Army.^[3] In 1933 his father was killed by the NKVD.^[3][4] To escape the Holodomor famine Nestayko and his mother moved to Kiev to her sister.^[3] Nestayko lived and worked since in Kiev.^[3]

In 1947^[4] he started and in 1952 Nestayko graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.^[3] He then worked in the magazine "Dnipro", "Periwinkle" and "Youth".^[3] And from 1956 to 1987 Nestayko was the editor in charge of children's literature magazine "Rainbow".^[3] Nestayko's first book “Shurka & Shurko” was published in 1956.^[4] From then till his death circa 30 of his stories, fairy tales, novels and plays were published.^[4] His books have been translated into twenty languages throughout the world, including English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Bengali, Hungarian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Slovak.^[4] The adaptation of Nestayko's Toreadors from Vasyukivka won a Grand-prix at the International Festival in Munich (in 1968) and the main prize in Sydney (in 1969).^[4] The Fraud ”F” adaptation was awarded at the All-Soviet-Union Film Festival in Kiev (in 1984) and at the Gabrovo Film Festival (in Bulgaria in 1985).^[4] Nestayko's works are included in school curricula in Ukraine.^[3]

In 2010 Viktor Yushchenko awarded him an order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise of fifth class.^[5]

References