Writer based in Austin, Texas

Stuart Ziarnik grew up in the small town of Hartland, Connecticut. He graduated from the University of Connecticut with a degree in English Literature and Psychology. After college he spent time in South Carolina, Chicago, and Boston before settling in Austin, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

His debut chapbook, The Vulture, won The Headlight Review’s 2021 Chapbook Prize and was a finalist in The Hunger Journal’s 2020 Tiny Forks Chapbook Contest. He has been awarded a Poet & Author Fellowship by the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing, and he was the winner of the 2024 George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest. His fiction has appeared in Flash Fiction Magazine, Third Wednesday, Space City Underground, and Suddenly, And Without Warning. In 2023 he finished writing a mystery novel set in Marfa, Texas, and is now working on a novel set in coastal Connecticut. His influences include Karl Ove Knausgaard, Ernest Hemingway, and Philip Roth.

In addition to writing, Ziarnik works as an account manager. He also runs Romancing The Stones, a social club for the Magic: the Gathering card game.