[1] Epimach-Šypila was born into a petty noble family in what is now the village of Budzkaŭščyna in Polack District of Vitebsk Governorate.

After graduating from the Riga Alexanderovskaya Gymnasium, he enrolled into the Faculty of History and Philology of the Imperial St. Petersburg University.

[2][3] After graduation, he worked in the library of the Imperial St. Petersburg University, held various teaching positions and became a prominent bibliographer.

During his work visits abroad - to Denmark, France, Germany - Epimach-Šypila promoted Belarusian culture among local academics.

[3][2][5] He also compiled "The Belarusian Textbook", "a unique source, thanks to which many poetic works of the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries have reached us today".