Born on 6 March 1957 in Gliwice; son of the railway administrator Czesław Olejniczak, and Maria, née Raczek. He completed his advanced secondary education at the Chemistry Technical School in Gliwice in 1977. The following year he started a degree in Polish philology at the University of Silesia (UŚ) in Katowice. He worked for two years from 1982 as a teacher of Polish language at the Adam Mickiewicz Grammar School in Katowice. In March 1983, he took up a post as a trainee assistant at the Department of Literary Theory at the Institute of the Study of Polish Literature (INoLP; which since 2005 has been named after Ireneusz Opacki) at UŚ. He graduted with a master's degree in 1983, joining the Literary History Commission of the Katowice Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences the same year (he was made head of the Commission in 2011). He was appointed assistant at INoLP at UŚ in 1984. He made his debut in 1985 with the article Problematyka marksistowska w „Dzienniku” Witolda Gombrowicza, czyli jedenasty esej przy Gombrowiczu (Marxism in Witold Gombrowicz's "Diary", or the eleventh essay on Gombrowicz), which was published in Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Śląskiego w Katowicach (no. 676). In subsequent years his research focused on contemporary Polish literature, in particular works by émigré authors. Between 1986 and 1990, he also worked as a Polish teacher at the Karol Świerczewski Grammar School in Zabrze before moving to the STO Stanisław Konarski Grammar School No. I in Katowice, where he worked until 2002. In 1988, he joined the Scientific Board of the quarterly "FA-art", before becoming a regular contributor to the journal, where between 1992 and 2000 he published book reviews. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1991 for his dissertation Motywy arkadyjskie w twórczości Stanisława Vincenza, Jerzego Stempowskiego, Józefa Wittlina, Czesława Miłosza (Arcadian Motifs in the Works of Stanisław Vincenz, Jerzy Stempowski, Józef Wittlin and Czesław Miłosz), which was supervised by Prof. Ireneusz Opacki. Olejniczak was subsequently appointed lecturer. He was awarded a habilitation degree in 2000 for his study W-Tajemniczanie – Aleksander Wat (Initi-ation – Aleksander Wat) and was subsequently appointed associate professor at UŚ. From 2002 to 2007 he was associate dean of the Faculty of Philology at UŚ. In December 2004 he was made state-appointed professor. In 2005, he was appointed to the Scientific Board of the yearbook "Archiwum Emigracji" ("Émigré Archive"), while in 2006 he was made Chair of the Senate Commission for Education, serving in the role until 2008. That year he co-founded Stowarzyszenie "Edukacja dla Przyszłości" (Education for the Future Association), serving as its chair until 2015. In 2008/09 he was head of the Department of Literary Theory at INoLP at UŚ. He participated in numerous Polish and international academic conferences. He was a visiting lecturer in Naples in 2005. The Socrates/Erasmus programme took him to Bucharest in 2009, Vilnius in 2010 and Stockholm in 2011. He was appointed full professor at UŚ in 2010. In 2012/13 he also worked at the University of Economics in Katowice, where he served as Head of the Autonomous Department of Economic Journalism and New Media, Deputy Dean for Quality Assurance in Teaching, and Curator of the study programme in Journalism and Social Communications. In 2016, he was appointed to the chapter of the Witold Gombrowicz Literary Prize. He was awarded the University of Silesia Rector's Prize on several occasions in recognition of his achievements in research and administration. He received the Medal of the Commission of National Education in 2005, the Bronze Cross of Merit in 2005 and the Gold award for Distinguished Service to the University of Silesia in 2005. He married the Polish philologist Elżbieta Pieczyrak 1985. They have a daughter, Marta (b. 1987). He lives in Świętochłowice.