Nil Hilevich was born on September 30, 1931, in the village of Sloboda in the Logoysk district of the Minsk region, into a peasant family. His childhood and youth were spent here, including the years of German occupation during World War II. The experiences of this time were later reflected in his work, notably in his 1988 autobiographical novella Having Survived the War (Perezhyushy vainu). In the early post-war years, the future writer worked as a rural postman. In 1947, he moved to Minsk, where he graduated from the N.K. Krupskaya Minsk Pedagogical College in 1951, and from the Faculty of Philology at Belarusian State University (BSU) in 1956. After his studies, he continued his education in the postgraduate program at BSU.

From 1960 onward, Hilevich’s life was closely tied to BSU for many years. He worked at the Department of Belarusian Literature: in 1963, he defended his PhD dissertation on the history of 20th-century Belarusian poetry; in 1978, he received the academic title of professor; and in 1980, he was awarded the honorary title of Honored Scientist of the Byelorussian SSR. Between 1958 and 1963, Hilevich also worked as a literary consultant for the Zvyazda newspaper. From 1980 to 1989, he served as the First Secretary of the Board of the Writers' Union of the Byelorussian SSR, and from 1990 to 1995, he headed the Permanent Commission of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Belarus on education, culture, and the preservation of historical heritage.

Hilevich’s path into literature began in his youth. At the age of 15, he made his print debut with the poem «Apple Tree» (Yablynka), published in 1946 in the Beryozka magazine. His first poetry collection, A Song for the Journey (Pesnya u darohu), was published in 1957. This was followed by the books Spring is Coming Across the Land (Pradvesne idze pa zyamli, 1959) and Restlessness (Nespakoy, 1961), which later established the poetic core of Hilevich's work: the images of the mother and the native language are equated with the small homeland, with Mother Belarus, and with the Belarusian folk song, symbolizing the soul of the nation and its unique culture.

The native language held a special place in Hilevich's work.The poem «Native Word» (Rodnaye slova), published in 1960, marked the emergence of one of the main themes of his creativity, to which the poet would return throughout his life. 

Hilevich was not only an author but also a dedicated researcher of folk culture. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he dedicated significant effort to folklore studies, organizing field practices for students with trips to various districts of Belarus. During these expeditions, recordings of folk songs, fairy tales, stories, and other examples of oral creativity were collected. Tens of thousands of recordings accumulated in the university’s folklore archive. Hilevich systematized this vast amount of material, selecting the most complete and artistically expressive texts from the numerous variants of the works.

The result of this work was a series of fundamental folklore publications.

In 1973, the collection Songs of Seven Villages (Pesni syami vyosak) was released, followed by Songs of Folk Holidays and Rituals (Pesni narodnykh svyat i abradau, 1974), Lyrical Songs (Lirychnyya pesni, 1976), and Lyrics of the Belarusian Wedding (Liryka belaruskaga vyasyellya, 1979). In 1983, a volume titled Folk Fairy Tales, Fables, Stories, and Wise Sayings (Narodnyya kazki-bayki, apavyadanni i mudraslouyi) was published. In total, the first four song volumes contained around 5,000 folk songs. A later prepared collection, Spells (Zamovy), was published in 2000.

One of Hilevich's most famous works is the verse novel Native Children (Rodnyya dzietsi), published in 1985. The poet returned to this work over many years. The piece beautifully combines lyricism, journalistic flair, humor, and keen observations of life in the Belarusian village. Satirical and humorous works also occupy an important place in the writer's legacy.
The narrative poem Tale of Bald Mountain (Skaz pra Lysuyu haru) can be called the first poetic bestseller in the history of Belarus; the book was distributed in a massive print run of 160,000 copies. For over 30 years, it was published under the pseudonym Frantishak Vedmak-Lysogorsky, and finally, in 2003, it was published under Nil Hilevich's own name.

Another important aspect of Hilevich's literary activity was translation. He translated works from Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Sorbian, and other languages.
The poet was also closely connected to musical culture. His poems were frequently turned into songs, and Belarusian composers eagerly set his works to music. Among the composers who created music for Hilevich's poems are Nikolai Aladov, Anatoly Bogatyrev, Eduard Khanok, and others.

Nil Hilevich was an Honored Scientist of the Byelorussian SSR, a Candidate of Philological Sciences (PhD), and a professor. His contributions were recognized with state awards and international prizes. In 1980, he was awarded the State Prize of the Byelorussian SSR named after Yanka Kupala for his poetry book In Good Harmony (U dobraj zhodzie). On September 30, 1991, on the day of his 60th birthday, Nil Hilevich was awarded the prestigious title of People's Poet of Belarus.

In the last decades of his life, Hilevich continued to work in almost all the genres he had previously explored. In late 2013, the final book of his 23-volume collected works was published. In 2015, a collection of his essays and memoirs, In the Whirlpool of Being (U viry bytstsia), was released.

Nil Hilevich passed away on March 29, 2016, at the age of 84, and was buried at the Kalvariya Cemetery in Minsk. Materials related to his life and work are kept in the Belarusian State Archive-Museum of Literature and Art. His own words about a person's true wealth lying in their word sound especially accurate today: the word of Nil Hilevich continues to live on in Belarusian culture.

To mark the 95th anniversary of the poet's birth, a series of literary and musical events is taking place in the Logoysk district. On the jubilee day, September 30, a Writer’s Day event titled «And we live as long as our song lives...» will be held in Logoysk.