Stepan Protsiuk

Stepan Vasylovych Protsiuk (; born 13 August 1964 in Kuty, Lviv Oblast) is a contemporary Ukrainian novelist, essayist and poet. The author of more than 30 books, he is known above all for his psychological prose and for a cycle of fictionalised biographies of Ukrainian writers and public figures. In 2026 he received the honorary title of Merited Art Worker of Ukraine. Shortly after his birth, Protsiuk's parents moved to Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.

Stepan Protsiuk studied in Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University and obtained a PhD (Candidate of Sciences) degree in philology in the Institute of Literature of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since the early 1990s, he has been living in Ivano-Frankivsk; he taught Ukrainian literature at the Precarpathian National University alongside his writing career until 2020.

Stepan Protsiuk is a member the Ukrainian center of PEN International. Protsiuk was a member of National Writers' Union of Ukraine since 1995 until he quit the organization in 2017, claiming that he had "different views on the development of the Ukrainian literature".

Protsiuk is married, he is a father to two sons. He currently lives in Ivano-Frankivsk.

In the late 2000s, Protsiuk debuted with his novels for children. First novel, Mariyka and Kostyk, was followed by two sequels, In Love with the Sun and Argonauts. All of them were published in Kyiv-based publishing house Grani-T. Protsiuk also authored three books for children published in Vinnytsia-based publishing house Teza.

Protsiuk is also known for what he calls his psychobiographical novels, devoted to prominent figures of Ukrainian culture. The cycle began with books on the writers Vasyl Stefanyk (The Rose of Ritual Pain), Volodymyr Vynnychenko (Masks Fall off Slowly) and Arkhyp Teslenko (Black Apple). It was continued by Hands and Tears (2022), about Ivan Franko, and Moon, Moon (2023), about Hryhir Tiutiunnyk; the latter was finished in early 2022 but its publication was delayed by the full-scale Russian invasion.

In 2024, Protsiuk published Pan, a novel about the entrepreneur, publisher and philanthropist Yevhen Chykalenko, which became his most decorated book.

He is the 2015 winner of the "Golden Ukrainian Writers" award for the largest circulation of books in Ukraine. Protsiuk's novels Infection and Tenth line were nominated for Shevchenko National Prize in 2003 and 2016, respectively. His novels Hands and Tears and Moon, Moon were shortlisted for the 2024 Shevchenko National Prize, and Pan for the 2026 award. Pan was also shortlisted for the 2024 BBC Book of the Year award, and in September 2025 it brought Protsiuk the eighth Ivan Korsak Literary Prize, an annual award for Ukrainian-language historical fiction, presented in Lutsk. Apart from nationwide awards, Protsiuk received various local awards in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast, such as Ivan Franko Literary Award (2002) and Vasyl Stefanyk Literary Award (2003).

Protsiuk's works have been translated into several languages. In late 2008, Protsiuk's novel Totem was published in the Azerbaijani language in publishing house Vektor in Baku. His short stories and poems have been translated into the German, Russian, Slovak, Polish, Czech, and French languages. In 2025 his novel Hit Your Head against the Wall was published in Czech as Tluč hlavou o zeď by the Prague publishing house Volvox Globator, in a translation by Jiřina Dvořáková. Protsiuk's presentation were held in dozens of Ukrainian cities, as well as in Chicago (in Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art ), Paris, Berlin, Helsinki, Kraków and other cities.

Several works by Stepan Protsiuk are included in the list of literature recommended for reading in middle and high school in Ukraine. Along with several other poetic groups created in the late 1980s and early 1990s, group New Degeneration co-founded by Protsiuk is included in the program of External independent evaluation, the statewide test used for admission to universities. Protsiuk's books for teenagers are recommended for reading in 7th grade, while his novel Infection is recommended for students of 11th grade.

Protsiuk's literary legacy is the subject of two scholarly books (by Bohdan Pastuh and Oleh Solovey), one play based on Protsiuk's novel Infection (Tetiana Kinzerska), and numerous scientific and journalist articles.