Mykhailo Kotsiubynskyi was born in September 17, 1864 in Vinnitsa in the family of a civil servant. He studied at Bar Elementary School and at Shargorod Theological School. In 1885 he joined the clandestine organization «Young Community», due to this fact he was prosecuted. In 1886–1889 he gave private lessons and continued to study on his own, and in 1891, hу passed the external exam at the Vinnytsia real school as a national teacher, he worked as a tutor. He began publishing in 1890 in Lviv children's magazine "The Call" published his poem "Our house".
In 1897 he moved to Chernihiv. Initially, he held an appointment of a clerk at the district council; also he temporarily headed the public education department and edited «the Zemsky collection of Chernihiv province». In September 1900, he got a job at the city statistics bureau, where he worked until 1911. In Chernihiv, he met Vira Daesha, fell in love, and she became his wife, a loyal friend and assistant. His children grew up here - Yurii, Oksana, Irina, Roman. He took an active part in the cultural life of the city, arranged literary evenings, and supported aspiring writers. Every week the literary youth of the city gather at the writer's house. Famous writers and poets such as Vasyl Blakytnyi, Mykola Voronyi, Pavlo Tychyna came to the writer house.
In Chernihiv, he created his immortal novella "Fata Morgan" about the tragic, bloody events in the village of Vykhvostovi, an eyewitness of which he was. In Chernihiv, in his home, the writer wrote his best works: "The Witch" (1898), "In bonds of Shaitan" (1899), "Humanly" (1900), "The Heavy Price", and "Lalechka" (both 1901), "On the Stone", "Apple Blossom" (both 1902), "From the Depth" (1903-04), "Laughter", "He Goes" (both 1906), "Intermezzo" (1908), "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" ”(1911) and others.
During his lifetime, Kotsiubynsky's works were widely known in Ukraine and abroad. They were repeatedly published in Ukraine and Russia. Abroad his works were published in Polish, Czech, Moldavian, Swedish, German, French and other languages. In April 25, 1913 the writer died. Kotsiubynsky was buried in Chernihiv on Boldin Hills, in his favorite holiday destination.
