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, and has lived in South Carolina, Chicago, Boston, and Austin. After fifteen years away he recently moved back to Connecticut, where he lives in Milford 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 George Dila Memorial Flash Fiction Contest and The Letter Review Prize. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Flash Fiction Magazine, Third Wednesday, Body Fluids, Space City Underground, and Suddenly, And Without Warning. In 2023 he finished writing a mystery novel set in Marfa, Texas, and is finishing work 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.