Alexei Nikitin

Aleksey Nikitin was born in Kyiv on January 7, 1967. In 1983, after graduating from a physics and mathematics school, he entered the Physics Department of Kyiv University. In 1985, while in his third year, he was drafted into the army. After returning, he graduated from the university, but never worked in physics again. He spent five years writing his first short story and published it in 1990. He is a member of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. In 1992, he registered his first business. From 1993 to 2000, he took part in clearing settlements for supplies of Turkmen gas to Ukraine, was involved in the development and supply of high-tech products for Ukrainian nuclear power plants and the Shelter Object, the development of an emergency dust-suppression system for the Shelter Object, and supplies of his own chemical products to Japan. In 2000, a book of prose, The Bird-Catcher’s Hand, was published in Kyiv. That same year, the book received the Vol. Korolenko Prize from the Writers’ Union of Ukraine for the best Russian-language prose of the year. In 2002, he left business and spent six years in IT journalism. Aleksey Nikitin’s novel Mahjong (2010), in Kindle format on Amazon, reached the top positions in several categories, edging out English-language editions. In addition, Mahjong outranked all Russian and Ukrainian e-books available on Amazon.