Natalia Babalyk was born and raised in the Carpathian mountains, in Serhii village, in the Hutsul region of Bukovina, and life in the mountains shaped her strong-willed character. She studied journalism at the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv and continued her career in Lviv, working in radio and television and founding and publishing the book newspaper Knyzhkova TEKA.
In 1994, together with colleagues, she founded and developed the Lviv Publishers’ Forum and the annual book fair, which are still operating as the Lviv BookForum and are the hallmark of the city of Lviv. So, the Lviv BookForum is the oldest Ukrainian book fair and international literary festival. During 2023-2024, the festival has attracted tens of thousands of offline visitors in Lviv and 3.5 million viewers worldwide.
In 2015-2016, she developed and implemented interactive games “Become a Superhero” and “Country of Heroes” for the Lviv Children’s Forum.
In 1996-2017, as one of the founders and executive director of the Center for the Humanities, she and a team of like-minded people implemented numerous interdisciplinary projects. The Center operated as a non-governmental organization and was also a structural unit of the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv. These included the University Dialogues, the Translation Workshop, the Interdisciplinary Seminars “Interpretations”, the Master’s Programs in Cultural Studies and Sociology, the World of Sophia Philosophical Club, the Humanities Publishing Program, the Open Electronic Humanities Archive Anthropos, and others.
In 2024, she joined the Cultural Hub community as the managing editor of the wartime flash essay programme Wars. Ukrainians. Humanity, and subsequently became an Associate Member.
