In 1917, Zabila's family moved to Ukraine and settled in the small village of Liubotyn (now Kharkiv region).

In 1924, her husband Sava Bozhko printed her first poem in the newspaper Chervony Kordon in Kamianets-Podilskyi.

More than half of those poetry and prose collections are addressed to young readers: Adventures on a Bus (1928), "At Sea" (1929), About Tarasyk and Marysya (1930), Yasochchyna's Book (1934).

[2] Returning to Ukraine, she headed the Kharkiv Writers' Organization and edited Barvinok magazine until 1947.

[6] During her literary career, Zabila has published about two hundred books for children, primarily for preschool and junior school.

The writer told children about historical events such as the life of distant ancestors in the fantasy play The First Step (1968) and in the dramatic poem "Trojan's Children", which is a poetic retelling of The Tale of Igor's Campaign, dedicating it to the 1500th anniversary of founding Kyiv.

Soviet literary studies didn't highlight this aspect of her creativity, passing off the writer as purely children's author.

[7] In 2013, Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine registered a draft law commemorating the 110th anniversary of Zabila's birth by establishing a state prize for works for children.

In 2021, a street in Kyiv that was previously named by the Georgian Bolshevik Oleksandr Tsulukidze was renamed in her honor.