[1] Miriam Wilensky (later Yalan-Shteklis) was born in the town of Potoki, near Kremenchuk in the Russian Empire (modern Ukraine).
[1] She was the daughter of Hoda (Hadassah) and Yehuda Leib Nissan Vilensky, a Zionist leader descended from a long line of rabbis, and learned Hebrew as a child.
Yalan-Shteklis attended high school in Minsk and Petrograd, and studied psychology and social sciences at the University of Kharkiv.
In addition to poetry, Yalan-Shtelis translated children's literature into Hebrew from Russian, English, German and Dutch, as well as works by Samuel Marshak, Erich Kastner, Leo Tolstoy, P. L. Travers, and others.
Incorporating nationalist Zionist ideology, but also the traditions of Russian and European literature, her work is nevertheless original and Israeli.
[1] The poetry, fiction, and translations of Yalan-Stekelis were collected in three volumes published between 1957 and 1963, with illustrations by Zila Binder: Shir ha-Gedi (Song of the kid); Yesh Li Sod (I have a secret); and Ba-Halomi (In my dream).
The third volume, for older children, contains Zionist poems about the Land of Israel, bereavement and losing parents in the Holocaust.