He worked in the press until 1986 before embarking on his career as an author of fiction. He has written and published more than ten books, including the novels “Tin Sovy” and “Nostalhia” (Nostalgia) along with collections of novelettes and short stories including “Snih” and “Zhyvytsya”. He has been a member of the Union of Ukrainian Authors since 1978, and the Association of Ukrainian Authors since 1999. Between 1988 and 1999 he was engaged in political journalism and worked in various “hot spots”. This experience, particularly the details of the operation to save the family of General Dudayev after his assassination, was recreated in the novel "Elemental" In 1991 he became a member of the leadership of the Ukrainian Republican Party and was its press secretary until 1998. His popularity as a writer commenced with the publication of the novel “Klyuch” (1999), which gained a few awards. This was the first work by the author after an extended pause in his creative work which began in 1990. Shkliar himself explains the break in his writing career by saying, “It occurred as the sign of some harsh, epoch making change". The novel was written in 1998 after the author was resuscitated and began to work on the text in hospital, and has been repeatedly published in Ukraine (by 2009 it had been published on 12 separate occasions) and abroad (it has been translated into Swedish, Russian and Armenian. Between 200 and 2004 he was the Chief Editor at "Dnipro" publishing In 2011 Shkliar was a member of the jury for the "Iune Slovо” literary competition. At the end of 2011 Vasyl Shkliar established the international charitable “The Vasyl Shkliar Fund “Kholodnoyarska Respublika”, the main aim of which is charitable activity in support of the development of Ukrainian cinematography. This includes assistance for the creation, distribution and popularisation of a film and the possible subsequent televised version based on Shkliar's novel Raven (Ukrainian: Чорний Ворон, "Chornyi Voron").
The novel “Raven” (Ukrainian: Чорний Ворон, "Chornyi Voron") Shkliar's novel “Chornyi Voron” (about
Vasyl Chuchupak and his
Kholodny Republic) resonated powerfully in present-day Ukrainian society. The book was published at the end of 2009 by the “Yaroslavskyi val” company (Kyiv) and, practically simultaneously by the company, “Klub simeynoho dozvillya” (Kharkiv) under the name (“Zalyshenets”). Interest in the book was inflated by the newspaper publication of an extract. In July 2011 and audio version of “Zalyshenets” was published by Mystetska Ahentsiya "Nash Format“. The book was narrated by Petro Boyko a prominent Ukrainian radio broadcaster, Priest and cultural activist. The novel recreates one of the most dramatic and, simultaneously, heavily censored pages of Ukrainian history, the struggle undertaken by armed insurgents against the occupying
Bolshevik army in the 1920s. Several reviews appeared immediately following the novel's publication and a speech about the book was delivered from the podium of Ukraine's parliament by renowned author and Ukrainian MP Volodymyr Yavorivskyi. The book was translated into English by Steve Komarnyckyj and Susie Speight of Kalyna Language Press and published under the title “Raven” by Aventura ebooks.
Other works • Pershyi snih (1977) • Zhyvytsya (1982) • Pralis (1986) • Nostalhiya (1989) • Tin Sovy (1990) • Kliuch (1999) • Elemental (2001) • Krov kazhana (2003) • The Decameron (a translation into Ukrainian of Bocaccio's classic work) (2006) • Repetytsiya satany (2006) • Chereshni v zhyti • Raven (or Zalyshents/
Chornyi voron in Ukrainian (2009) (translated into English by Steve Komarnyckyj and Susie Speight of Kalyna Language Press in 2012) • Marusia (2014) == Awards ==