Writer and social activist, Vera Lysenko (1910–75), was born and raised in a multi-ethnic working-class neighborhood in Winnipeg. She was one of the first Ukrainian-Canadian women to complete a university degree, going on to work as a teacher, journalist, social historian, playwright, poet, and translator. Her first book, Men in Sheepskin Coats (1947), was the first English-language history of Ukrainians in Canada written by a Ukrainian-Canadian. In addition to Yellow Boots, her other fiction work is Westerly Wild. Lysenko also authored numerous articles, essays, and short stories.