A prominent Soviet Ukrainian writer since the 1960s. A graduate of the Nizhyn Pedagogical Institute (1959), he was first published in 1960 and is the author of over 25 novella and short-story collections, several of them for children. Considered in the 1960s one of the shistdesiatnyky — the postwar generation of writers and cultural activists who rejected Stalinist methods and ideology and pushed for cultural and political liberalization — he subsequently chose the safe life of an official writer over one of opposition to the regime. Hutsalo's works are noted for their detail, lyrical descriptions of nature, psychological portraits, and abundant use of the rural vernacular.