Sweet Darusya

Maria Matios was born in Ukraine in 1959, graduating with a degree in Ukrainian literature from Chernivtsi State University. She has worked as chief-secretary for the Bukovina Literary Journal, the Chernivtsi Writers' Union, and the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine. From 2005 to 2010 she served as deputy chair of the Shevchenko National Prize.Matios' first poems were published when she was fifteen years old. In 1992 she published her first prose in Kiev Magazine, and she has gone on to write seven books of poetry and five books of prose. This has earned her the unofficial title of Ukraine's most prolific female author, and the official titles of Chevalier of the Ukrainian Order of Merit and Honorary Citizen of Chernivtsi.In 2007, the novel Hardly Ever Otherwise earned Matios the Grand Prix at the Coronation of Words Competition. The title was also named book of the year. Her highly influential novel, Sweet Darusia, was named the best Ukrainian novel written in the first fifteen years after Ukrainian Independence, and earned Matios the Shevchenko National Prize in 2005.Her works have been translated into many languages including Serbian, Romanian, Russian, Polish, Croatian, Belorussian, Azerbaijani, Japanese, and Chinese.