Born in West Ukraine, Jaroslav Melnik (Yaroslav Melnyk, Jaroslavas Melnikas) is graduated from Lviv University and did his postgraduate studies at Maxim Gorky Literature Institute in Moscow. He worked as a magazine writer for Elle (magazine).

His novels, published abroad, received enthusiastic responses from such media as Monde, Figaro, Liberation, Telerama, and others. Critics compare his work with the texts of J. Orwell, Huxley, Bradbury, Saramago, Kafka. Three of his dystopias were included in the ‘TOP 100 Best dystopias in the world over the past 100 years’ (https://dystopies.com/).

Critics call him a mystic and existential writer.

He lives between Lithuania and France.

He's a winner of numerous competitions and awards, the author of more than 15 books that have been translated into English, French, German and other languages.

In 1997 his novel The Pariahs of Eden was published in French by Robert Laffont (Paris) and was very well received by French literary critics. Melnik's dystopian novel Remote Space (Distant space) won BBC Book of the Year in 2013. It was published in French in 2017 as Espace lointain. The novel was awarded a prize for the Book of the Year in France (LIBR'A NOUS 2018, the Imaginary category : 250 bookstores of Francophone countries elected a long list, then a shortlist and finally a winner. Choice of 400 novels). Il is being reissued in pocket-sized format in 2018.

• It is shortlisted for the prestigious European Award Utopiales for the best science fiction novel written by a European writer.

The shortlist for the 2018 Prix Utopiales Award has been announced:

“L’Or du diable” ( Teufelsgold, 2016/Devil’s Gold) – Andreas Eschbach (Germany)
“Espace lointain” (Tolima erdve, 2008/Distant Space) – Jaroslav Melnik (Ukraine/Lithuania)
“L’âme des horloges” (The Bone Clocks, 2014) – David Mitchell (UK)
“Station: La chute” (Crashing Heaven, 2015) – Al Robertson (UK)
“Amatka” (2012) – Karin Tidbeck (Sweden)

• It is also shortlisted for the European Prize Prix Jean Monnet des jeunes européennes 2018
• It is shortlisted for the European Prize Prix Bouchon de cultures 2018 (winner)

In 2018 Remote space was included in the compulsory program of the last 11th grade of secondary Ukrainian schools.

In 2014 his dystopian novel Masha, or the Fourth Reich (Masha, or Post-Fasсism) is published in Lithuania in 2013 by the largest Lithuanian publishing house ‘Alma littera', and is shortlisted for ‘Book of the Year’. In 2016 it was published in Ukraine (shortlisted for the BBC Book Of The Year 2016 and became a bestseller). The novel is published by the Actes Sud publisher in France in 2020. Top 5 of the best novels (Liberation). .

A book of short stories and novellas "The Last Day" was published in 2018 in the UK. Finalist for the International Rubery Book Award (UK). In 2025, the book was published in India in Hindi.

J.Melnik also wrote a crime novel (Scandinavian - Nordic noir – style, the novel is set in Vilnius and Stockholm). The novel is published by the Actes Sud publisher in France in 2023. Top 7 of the best crime novels (Les Echos).

In 2024, his dystopian novel “I Never Get Tired of Living” was published by Actes Sud, about a world of immortals and mortals, as well as the threat of AI controlling people's lives. The novel was included in the TOP 10 best novels of the season in France (Babelio).

His novels 'are written for Hollywood', critics say.

His work is characterized by its constructivist and philosophical approach, by existential problems and intriguing combinations of science fiction and realism.

Critics call him “a Neo-Symbolist of Lithuanian literature”

"Yaroslav Melnyk is the most cosmopolitan Ukrainian writer of the 21st century" (British library, London).

Melnik's books have been among the best Lithuanian and Ukrainian books of the year a number of times, the book Kelias į rojų (The Road to Paradise) have been nominated for Europe Book Prize, and his book The Paris Diary (2013) became a bestseller in Lithuania.

All of his books in Ukrainian were finalist's books of the “BBC Ukrainian Book of the Year” (2012, 2013, 2014, 2016)

In 2020 J.Melnik was awarded the Lithuanian Government Prize for his contribution to Lithuanian literature and its promotion in the world.