Paulina-Ionela Onujec is from Romania, and grew up in a commune on the Romania–Ukraine. She has spoken Ukrainian since she was little, as all the localities in the area around the border speak the Hutsul dialect. She graduated from the Faculty of Letters in Cluj Napoca, then pursued a master's degree at the University of Bucharest, specialising in Slavic Cultural Studies. During her studies, she participated in volunteering and scientific sessions, various literary and biographical conferences for writers, and book presentations.

She worked at the Union of Ukrainians in Romania, at the magazine Ecouri Ucrainene, translating various literary texts, including the novel Darusya cea dulce (Darusya the Sweet) by the Ukrainian writer Maria Matios. She became very close to this novel, because the author’s language is similar to her own. She is currently enjoying working on multiple texts with different stories: a biographical novel called Constantin, depicting the life of a student at the beginning of his journey; Silence Comes First about a mother–daughter relationship; Girls, a historical account told by a grandmother about the Soviet era.