Attyla Mohylny

Attyla Mohylny, son of the Ukrainian poet Vit Vitko, was born on September 16, 1963 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and died all too prematurely on September 3, 2008 at the age of 45. The poet was named after the saint Attila and not the Hun of more historical renown. He completed his philology degree at Taras Shevchenko Kyiv State University and worked mostly as a teacher, editor and journalist during his abbreviated lifetime. He continued his studies while working in Dushanbe, Tadzhikistan, first as a group leader of The Young Pioneers, then as a teacher in the Medical Institute until 1985. Following his travels to Tadzhikistan, in Kyiv he tried his hand at journalism for the newspaper Evening Kyiv. Since then Mohylny had an off and on career as a teacher and journalist. He worked as an editor in the Molod Publishing House, and from 1987 taught occasionally at Kyiv and Warsaw Universities. He worked in television, writing film scripts for children’s shows. He authored two books of poetry early in his career: Rattling above the Rooftops (1987) and Contours of the City (1991) along with the text for the exquisitely illustrated children’s book Mavka and the Ant King in 2006. He continued to work on writing short stories and a novel until his death. -- Glagoslav Publications