Patricia Nell Warren

Patricia Nell Warren (pen-name Patricia Kylyna) was a Ukrainian and American poet and novelist. She wrote her works in Ukrainian and English.

In 1957 she married a Ukrainian emigre writer Yuriy Tarnawsky and subsequently learned Ukrainian language. Under Tarnawsky's influence she started socializing in Ukrainian emigre writers' circles and soon started writing her own poems, which culminated in her publishing several well-received Ukrainian poetry collections: Trahediya dzhmeliv (New-York: Vydavnytstvo New Yorkskoyi hrypy, 1960), Legendy i sny (New-York: Vydavnytstvo New Yorkskoyi hrypy, 1964), and Rozhevi mista (Munich: Suchasnist, 1969). She published her Ukrainian poetry collections under the pen-name Patricia Kylyna.

After Nell Warren divorced Tarnawsky in 1973, she left Ukrainian literature and never wrote another book in Ukrainian until her death. Instead Nell Warren switched to American literature and tried her best as an American novelist. In 1972 she published her first book in English, a novel The Last Centennial, still under her pen-name Patricia Kylyna (Kilina). Her breakthrough came in 1974 when she published a gay-themed novel The Front Runner. This was the first time she published any of her books under her real name Patricia Nell Warren, and it paid off: the book sold more than 10 mil. copies and was subsequently translated into multiple languages.

For her Ukrainian-language profile see Патриція Килина