Irene Zabytko a.k.a. The Literary Groupie is a Ukrainian American fiction writer, teacher, and filmmaker who loves to discuss fiction writing with writers.

Irene is the author of THE SKY UNWASHED, a novel about Chornobyl (Ukrainian transliteration) and the evacuees who returned to their irradiated villages. It was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Book, A Book Sense '76 Pick Selection, and a New England Booksellers Association Discovery title. The e-book version was rated Number One on Amazon.com and appeared on “The New York Times Bestseller E-Books List.”

She is also the author of the short story collection WHEN LUBA LEAVES based on the Ukrainian community in her Chicago neighborhood. One of the stories, “Obligation,” won the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award, and was read on National Public Radio’s “The Sound of Writing.” It was selected as The New York City Public Library’s Best Books for the Teen Age ’04.

She is also the author of THE FICTION PRESCRIPTION: HOW TO WRITE AND IMPROVE YOUR FICTION LIKE THE GREAT LITEARY MASTERS, a non-fiction collection of her lectures, techniques, and wisdom for writing literary fiction.

Her next collection of short stories is THE DAYS OF MIRACLE AND WONDER: Stories set in post-soviet Ukraine and based on Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales will be published by Galiot Press, Spring 2026.

Irene holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing (Fiction) from Vermont College. She is the recipient of numerous fellowships including Hawthornden Castle, (Midlothian, Scotland), Gladstone’s Library (Flintshire, U.K.), OMI International (Ghent, NY), and at the Banff Centre for the Arts (Alberta) among many others. 

She was awarded a Fulbright U.S. Scholar’s Award to Ukraine where she was researching the Ukrainian haunts of the 19th century writer Nikolai Gogol for an upcoming novel.