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y delphyne
Once in the course of human events, only once, does a perfect
thing happen. Of course, perfection lies in the eye of the
beholder, and to explain one’s perfect point of view to another
can be nigh unto impossible…but I shall make the attempt.
This splendid writer person, this Richard Chwedyk, our noble
Toastmaster of Windycon, has made the rather strange request
that I, a non-writer, an artist, compose his biography. “Fool!” I
immediately thought to myself. “What is he up to now?” But I
accepted the challenge and thus will say…hmmmm…
Well, I shall use his own words: “Everything I ever needed
to know I learned from Castle of Frankenstein magazine.”
He is a Chicago South Sider. That much is certain. He hails
from a scruffy blue collar southwest side neighborhood called
Garfield Ridge, born and raised Polish, grown to scrawny blond
strange and utterly charming manliness. He suffered the usual
indignities visited upon a Homo sapiens sapiens dwelling in
the midst of Homo neanderthalensi. Nevertheless, he achieved
maturity, and has reproduced his most essential self via the
sacred rite of writing.
Rich’s first sf story, “Getting Along With Larga”, won the very first
ISFiC short story contest in 1986. His first professionally published
story, “A Man Makes A Machine,” gathered momentum and
emerged from the depths of his soul while attending a Windycon
and is equal parts Antigone and Galaxina. It was the ISFiC contest
winner for 1988, and was published in Amazing in 1990.
His poem, “Rich and Pam Go to Fermilab and Later See a Dead
Man” was nominated for a Rhysling Award, also was published
in the 2004 Rhysling Anthology, courtesy of the Science Fiction
Poetry Association. Recently published is a retro tale from his
rabble-rousing rhythm guitar-playing adolescence in Lincoln
Park, “The Button”. And, most recently, his short story, “Where
We Go” appeared in Eric Reynolds’ 2007 anthology Visual
Journeys produced by Kansas City’s Hadley Rille Press. Hot!
Richard’s novella, “Brontë’s Egg”, won the 2004 Nebula Award.
“Brontë’s Egg” also received a Hugo nomination and came
in second for a Sturgeon Award. “Tibor’s Cardboard Castle”
continues the tale of legendary “saurs” (bioengineered children’s
toys cruelly cast aside to die, i.e., AI with tails) begun in “The
Measure of All Things”. Both “The Measure of All Things”
and “Brontë’s Egg” have been translated into Italian and Hebrew
and appeared in the Israeli sf magazine The Tenth Dimension.
The next saur story will be “Orfy”, as in Orpheus, where saur
Axel learns to cope with death. That will be followed by “The
Man Who Put the Bomp”, where the saurs meet their ostensible
“creator.” Not surprisingly, Rich’s saur stories prove popular
with people involved in animal rescue and shelter organizations,
including bat rescue (yes, bat rescue).
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Forthcoming is “The Ambiguities” appearing in the horror
anthology, Hell in the Heartland, from Annihilation Press of
Carbondale, a yarn about a young woman riding the Greyhound
bus, appropriately, from Hell.
Rich has been an inveterate journalist by day for decades.
Nevertheless, at night, despite screaming Midwestern winters,
wretched public transportation, and sustained by White Hen
coffee and soup, he has taught creative writing to aspiring protosentients.
A saint. He has been a regular bon vivant at Red Lion
festivities on Lincoln Avenue featuring Twilight Tales readings
and chilly ghost viewings. Interestingly, the original Red Lion,
relict of Old Chicago, has been demolished and is being rebuilt
from the ground up, a challenge to the ‘haints.
He is among the finest of glittering literati. He sizzles, he also is
the steak. Yet, despite all of this, he survives as a Homo sapiens
sapiens which is no mean feat. He eats meat with abandon,
greens and legumes with reluctance, and quaffs vodka with glee.
He is a great soul, my friend…he is perfection.