Liliya Sariecheva

Lilia Sariecheva is a published Russian writer. She was born near Vladivostok in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Lilia has two Bachelor of Science degrees from Russian universities. The first is in Russian Language and Literature and the second involves training to teach mentally and physically challenged persons. Known in Russia as Defectology, it includes defects in speech, hearing, and mental processes such as Down's Syndrome and autism plus psychotic and paranoid individuals. Lilia has taught for over twenty years. Lilia's paternal grandparents were peasants and her maternal grandparents were nobility. Her maternal grandfather, a prince, was murdered by the Red Guard. Lilia's father rose through the ranks to become a Lieutenant Colonel in the KGB. Lilia immigrated to the USA in 1995 and now holds dual citizenship.

The Russian Professional Literary Union recognized her talent as a poet and, as a member of this organization, her first poetry book, Hummingbird, was published in Russia in 2001. All proceeds from the sales of this book go to handicapped Russian children. Over 25,000 copies were sold by 2005. Her most recent poetry book, Mermaid, published in 2005, contains Lilia's poems on love and children. Her poems were also published in four anthologies along with the works of other noted Russian poets: Orpheus in 2001, When the Grim Hour of the War Came in 2005, Leaves Rustle and the Poem Sings in 2007, and Let’s Introduce Ourselves in 2008. Comments from Russian critics have all been favorable. The following quotations are translated from the Russian:

“The poems are memorized automatically and then suddenly flash in the mind like an unexpected light breeze.”

“Lilia is an original artist of a word; she uses a tenacious and sharp glance. The sincerity of feelings, elegance of style, and cleanliness of the rhyme fascinates.”

Robert Osland assisted in the translation into English and contributed much to the organizing of this material. He was raised on beef cattle ranches in the western states. He served over five years of active duty in the United States Marine Corps and he worked a total of sixteen years overseas. His formal training was as a reproductive physiologist in Animal Science. His published research papers are from Oregon State University, the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, the University of California at San Francisco, and California State University at Fresno, where Robert became a tenured professor.

Lilia met Robert in Russia while he was on a lecture circuit with the late M.E. Ensminger's International Agricultural Technical Schools, created to improve the world’s food supply. Together, Lilia and Robert make a perfectly paired writing team. Lilia's creative ability and amazing memory of stories plus Robert's organizing abilities and determination to preserve these stories led to the creation of Voyages through Time and Space. Lilia and Robert are painfully aware of the huge gap between the American perception of Russia and the reality of Russia. Further, they share the hope that future civil rights activity will include society’s acceptance of psychics.