Born in Boryslav in 1926, she grew up in the Hutsul region in the town of Kuty (at that time on the Polish-Romanian border).

She studied Germanics, music history and comparative literature at the University of Tübingen.

Vovk received a PhD and became professor of German literature at the State University of Rio de Janeiro.

Vovk died on 16 July 2022 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at the age 96.

In 2008, Vovk received Ukrainian state award Shevchenko National Prize.