Jessica Jo Staricka
MINNESOTA WRITER
PUBLICATIONS
"Trick of the Light" will be published online by New Ohio Review in December 2025.
_"Kid Disappeared" was published online in The Lascaux Review in September 2025. It was a finalist for the 2025 Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction. It can be read here: https://lascauxreview.com/kid-disappeared/
_"Opener Weekend" was published in print in Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review, Issue #30 in Summer 2024 and can be purchased here: https://www.14hills.net/
_"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/8012-bfj-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 flash fiction piece "Kid Disappeared" was a finalist for the 2025 Lascaux Prize in Flash Fiction. You can read the contest results here: https://lascauxreview.com/contest-results/
_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/0 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.
ABOUT
Jessica Jo Staricka is a Minnesota fiction writer who grew up on a dairy farm. She earned her MFA in Creative Writing at the University of New Orleans.
