publications

"Opener Weekend" will be published in print in Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review, Issue #30 in 2024.


"A Deep-Sea Diver is Rescued off the Ocean Floor" was published online in X-R-A-Y Literary Magazine in November 2022 and can be read here: https://xraylitmag.com/a-deep-sea-diver-is-rescued-off-the-ocean-floor-by-jessica-staricka/fiction/

"Anybody Home?" was published in print in Beloit Fiction Journal, Vol 35 in spring of 2022 and can be purchased here: https://www.beloit.edu/live/profiles/6340-vol-35-spring-2022

"Swamp Story" was published online in Issue 18 of Miracle Monocle in spring of 2022 and can be read here: https://louisville.edu/miraclemonocle/issue-18/jessica-staricka

"Snap" was published online in On the Run in April 2022 and can be read here: https://www.ontherunfiction.com/stories/snap

"Decades" was published online in Ellipsis in May 2021 and published in the print edition in fall 2021. The online edition can be read here: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/ellipsis/vol46/iss1/19/

"Forgive Us Our Trespasses" was published in Passengers Journal in April 2021 and can be read (and listened to!) here: https://www.passengersjournal.com/volume-2-issue-4-prose/#staricka

"A Story about Your Neighbor" was published in December 2020 in Hypertext Magazine. It can be read online here: https://www.hypertextmag.com/a-story-about-your-neighbor/ and purchased in print here: https://www.hypertextmag.com/product/hypertext-review-fall-winter-2020/

“Welcome Back” was published in the Ninth Letter web edition in July 2019 and can be read here: http://ninthletter.com/web-edition/summer-2019/summer-2019-fiction/362-staricka

“You’re Sick” was published in the now defunct River River Issue 8 in December 2018 and could formerly be read here: http://riverriver.org/issues/eight/youre-sick-staricka/

“Cotton Candy” was published in water soup in October 2017 and can be purchased here: https://www.amazon.com/water-soup-6-submissions/dp/1978375948

“The Christmas Gumdrops” was published in the now defunct Starsongs Magazine in December 2011 and can in theory be purchased here: http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/308776

awards and honors


My short story "Opener Weekend" was a semi-finalist for the American Short Fiction Halifax Ranch Fiction Prize in 2022.

My short story "Lone Prairie" won second place in the William Faulkner Literary Competition in 2022. You can see the list of winners here: https://williamfaulknerliterarycompetition.com/2022-winners/ and read about the awards ceremony here: https://www.nemiss.news/winners-of-2022-faulkner-literary-competition-honored-at-annual-luncheon/

My flash fiction piece "Snap" was a finalist for the Midway Journal -1000 Below: Flash Prose and Poetry Contest in 2021.

My short story "Anybody Home?" was runner-up for the Ernest and Shirley Svenson Award in Fiction at the University of New Orleans, judged by author George Singleton, in 2021.

My short play "Nearly Lunch" was accepted for and presented at the the Playwriting Symposium of the Mid-America Theatre Conference in 2020.

see my art



I’m also an artist. Links to my online galleries and shop can be found here: https://linktr.ee/jstaricka

about me

In lieu of a traditional “about me” section, please enjoy these demonstrative candid photos: