Mykola Palii (also known as Nicholas Miroslav Paley) was a Ukrainian-American professor, writer, literary scholar, and translator. Born on December 7, 1912, in the village of Bohdanivka, Galicia (now Ternopil region, Ukraine), Palii pursued studies in medicine and philosophy in Rome from 1933 to 1940. He emigrated to the United States in 1940 and continued his studies at Ohio University, earning both Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in philosophy between 1941 and 1947. From 1965 to 1970, he studied philosophy in Mexico and Nicaragua, and in 1968, he earned a Ph.D. from the Universidad Interamericana del Norte in Saltillo, Mexico.

Palii served as a professor of modern languages at Beloit College in Wisconsin from 1950 to 1977, where he also co-founded and chaired the Eastern European Institute from 1968 to 1972. He authored numerous scholarly articles, short stories, poems, essays, and translations. His published works include collections of short stories such as Nadiini dni (1949), Dud’io i ia (1980), and Vesnoosin (1991); a poetry collection, Etcetera (1970); and collections of humor and satire, including Sentymental’na Ukraina (1974) and Romantychna Ukraina (1980). Other notable works include the novelette Mari, Mari (1976), a translation collection Palkoiu krov’iu (1978), and Sim korotkykh pies (1988), a collection of plays.

Palii contributed humorous sketches and articles to publications such as Mitla (Argentina), Novyi Shliakh, and Ukrains’ke zhyttia, often using pseudonyms such as Mykola Hurko, S. Iakubs’kyi, and Tiburcio. He was an active member of the Shevchenko Scientific Society, the Ukrainian Free Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Ukrainian Academy of Science, among other professional and literary organizations. Mykola Palii passed away on July 23, 1994