Richard Terrill is an American author and jazz musician who plays with the Larry McDonough Quartet.

He has also written two nonfiction books: Fakebook: Improvisations on a Journey Back to Jazz and Saturday Night in Baoding: A China Memoir, winner of the Associated Writing Programs Award for nonfiction.

Terrill has received fellowships from National Endowment for the Arts, the Wisconsin and Minnesota State Arts Boards, the Jerome Foundation, the MacDowell Colony, and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

He formerly taught in the MFA program at Minnesota State University, Mankato as a Distinguished faculty scholar.

[2][3] Terrill was educated at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire where he played with Lyle Mays, a member of the Pat Metheny Group.