Biography
Richard Ilnicki
"The only gift better than a book is time enough to read it."
Richard graduated from Youngstown State University in 1968 and went to work for Chrysler Corporation in Detroit. It was here in 1968 while a graduate student at Wayne State University that he began to write, and where he won a prize for his first short story, "I Never Met A Rat I Didn't Like." His primary love has been poetry, especially Russian Poetry, and, in particular, Vladimir Mayakovsky. He has composed three books of poetry about his current wife, Mary Frances Joyce Ilnicki. Mary is an exceptional artist and has done some wonderful sculpting and glass fusing projects. Richard has self-published two novels and a book of short stories. One of his books of poetry, "The Hatchet Man" is in the library of Yad Vashem located in Jerusalem, Israel. The poems deal almost exclusively about the horrors of The Holocaust.
Richard has a daughter, Tiffany, and a stepdaughter, April Grande. Tiffany lives in Pittsburgh where Richard's heart resides. Once a Steelers fan, always a Steelers fan. April lives in Colorado, where Richard and Mary spent their honeymoon on August 1st, 1998. Richard began bodybuilding when he was thirteen and eventually went on to compete in a number of bodybuilding contests. He won the Mr. Youngstown title in 1968. He currently is the manager of Total Fitness located in Tarpon Springs, Florida. As of June 19th of 2019, he will have been with Total Fitness for 30 years. His writing has always been done in his spare time and at the indulgence of his understanding wife. Lastly, and most importantly, Richard has a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, to whom he gives full credit for his imagination and capacity to put two words together.