After 21 years of police service, Victor Letonoff retired in 2020 from the Rehoboth Beach Police Department, where he worked since 2002. During the last decade, he has been writing about his work as a police officer. Most recently, he published a feature-length essay in Creative Nonfiction’s Experiments in Voice issue (Fall 2022), as well as a tribute to police officers who died on 9/11 in the nationally distributed publication, PoliceOne.

Victor has received much validation for his work since he began writing. In 2016 he was the recipient of a Delaware Division of the Arts Fellowship for Individual Artists in the category of Creative Nonfiction. Again in 2024, he received a Delaware Division of the Arts Fellowship for Individual Artists in the category of Creative Nonfiction, this time as an Established Artist.  

His first published, essay, “Suicide by Cop” appeared in the July 2013 issue of Delaware Today and went on to win first place for a Feature Article from the Delaware Press Association and second place for a Feature Article from the National Federation of Press Women. His second published article, “Answering the Call” was published in the April 2014 issue of Delaware Beach Life and received a 2015 International Regional Magazine Association Award of Merit in the “Public Issues” category for all circulation divisions. And most recently, has been nominated for a Pushcart award for his essay, “Let’s Say,” in Creative Nonfiction. 

Before becoming a police officer, Victor worked full time as a sculptor and blacksmith, designing furniture and decorative works from forged steel. In addition, he founded and ran The Icon Factory, a commercial enterprise devoted to working with architects and clients to design and make site-specific architectural implements for the home. From 1986-1995, Victor also worked and taught at the Johnson Atelier Technical Institute of Sculpture in Mercerville, New Jersey.  He has sculptures in both public and private collections including the University of Maryland and Princeton University and has had his work shown in numerous shows and galleries along the Mid Atlantic Coast. Although Victor continues to work on his sculpture in his free time, he has increasingly turned to writing creative nonfiction as a creative outlet (and sees writing and sculpture as very similar).   

Victor completed his Master’s in Homeland Security from Wilmington University in December  2019. Prior to this (many years ago!), Victor graduated from Thomas Edison State College with a B.A. in Humanities. He also did an apprenticeship in decorative ironwork at the Hansen and Wallenburn Blacksmith Studio in Speicer, Germany.  

As a retired full-time police officer (he still works part-time) Victor is making writing a priority in his life, something he has long looked forward to doing.