Jessica Sirkin
@jessicasirkin.bsky.social
Fantasy, science fiction, and horror writer. Technology and TTRPG writer and editor. Working on a novel. Tries too hard. Reads too much. Probably dressed weird.
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Jessica Sirkin
@jessicasirkin.bsky.social
· Oct 16
ECO24 Microfiction Contest - First Place! - "Angels in the Forest" by
In honor of Violet Lichen's upcoming collection, ECO24: The Year's Best Speculative Ecofiction, out on November 18th, we hosted a microfiction contest inviting you to draw inspiration from our natural...
www.apexbookcompany.com
My story, "Angels in the Forest," won first place in @apexmag.bsky.social and Violet Lichen Press' ECO24 microfiction contest. I'm very excited to see it published. www.apexbookcompany.com/blogs/frontp...
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
"Frost draws illusory cracks on the windows and reflects the glow of candles. I can feel the house’s hunger growing in my belly, sharp as the corners of the sickle moon."
Today's #sfstoryoftheday by Jessica Sirkin in @apexmag.bsky.social.
apex-magazine.com/short-fictio...
Today's #sfstoryoftheday by Jessica Sirkin in @apexmag.bsky.social.
apex-magazine.com/short-fictio...
The House in Winter - Apex Magazine
There is a presence in completely dark rooms — even rooms in ordinary houses — a sense of certainty that someone else is there. It fills all the space where you are not. It wraps long arms around ...
apex-magazine.com
September 5, 2023 at 4:28 PM
"Frost draws illusory cracks on the windows and reflects the glow of candles. I can feel the house’s hunger growing in my belly, sharp as the corners of the sickle moon."
Today's #sfstoryoftheday by Jessica Sirkin in @apexmag.bsky.social.
apex-magazine.com/short-fictio...
Today's #sfstoryoftheday by Jessica Sirkin in @apexmag.bsky.social.
apex-magazine.com/short-fictio...
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
❄️❄️❄️ Apex Advent Calendar: Day 6 ❄️❄️❄️
"The House in Winter," by Jessica Sirkin
Issue 65, 2014
So...are the burned edges on these pictures getting bigger for anyone else?
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
"The House in Winter," by Jessica Sirkin
Issue 65, 2014
So...are the burned edges on these pictures getting bigger for anyone else?
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
December 19, 2024 at 11:59 AM
❄️❄️❄️ Apex Advent Calendar: Day 6 ❄️❄️❄️
"The House in Winter," by Jessica Sirkin
Issue 65, 2014
So...are the burned edges on these pictures getting bigger for anyone else?
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
"The House in Winter," by Jessica Sirkin
Issue 65, 2014
So...are the burned edges on these pictures getting bigger for anyone else?
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
via The New Yorker, Ellis Rosen cartoon
December 23, 2025 at 5:31 AM
via The New Yorker, Ellis Rosen cartoon
Tyranosoreass (noun): when you're pissed off because you just told a cool personal story to a kid and the kid is looking at you like you walked with the dinosaurs.
December 21, 2025 at 6:31 PM
Tyranosoreass (noun): when you're pissed off because you just told a cool personal story to a kid and the kid is looking at you like you walked with the dinosaurs.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
Bullshit "noise-cancelling" headphones only cancel the noise outside my head.
September 18, 2025 at 8:48 PM
Bullshit "noise-cancelling" headphones only cancel the noise outside my head.
Cinnamon roll kitty.
December 20, 2025 at 5:13 AM
Cinnamon roll kitty.
Phoebe surveys her domain from her castle.
December 20, 2025 at 5:05 AM
Phoebe surveys her domain from her castle.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
I am always happy to contribute to the strategic bun photo reserve. Meet Phoebe. She lives in my office and makes everything better by existing.
December 20, 2025 at 4:28 AM
I am always happy to contribute to the strategic bun photo reserve. Meet Phoebe. She lives in my office and makes everything better by existing.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
Since yesterday, many people have DM’d to say that they were strongly affected by my essay & wished they could share it.
So I've revised, expanded, & posted it for free on both Substack & Patreon.
Please feel free to share.
www.patreon.com/posts/this-i...
catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...
So I've revised, expanded, & posted it for free on both Substack & Patreon.
Please feel free to share.
www.patreon.com/posts/this-i...
catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...
December 19, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Since yesterday, many people have DM’d to say that they were strongly affected by my essay & wished they could share it.
So I've revised, expanded, & posted it for free on both Substack & Patreon.
Please feel free to share.
www.patreon.com/posts/this-i...
catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...
So I've revised, expanded, & posted it for free on both Substack & Patreon.
Please feel free to share.
www.patreon.com/posts/this-i...
catvalente.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
this is astonishingly beautiful
This essay by the author of a recent well-reviewed book about Tolkien starts modestly and then stabs you with a Morgul-blade halfway through, where you are pinioned by a twist in the telling. You may never recover. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/o...
Opinion | Why I Keep Returning to Middle-Earth
www.nytimes.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:02 PM
this is astonishingly beautiful
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
The skies at night are black, a black that almost rears up and strikes at him in its purity, and he cannot tell what direction the attack comes from, for how could he? The stars in that unearthly field become onrushing in their stillness, through all that emptiness. - novel in progress
December 19, 2025 at 5:06 PM
The skies at night are black, a black that almost rears up and strikes at him in its purity, and he cannot tell what direction the attack comes from, for how could he? The stars in that unearthly field become onrushing in their stillness, through all that emptiness. - novel in progress
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
My short story “We Are Sorry For Your Suffering” - a sci-fi epistolary tale about the end of the world - is the December issue of @onestorymag.bsky.social! Read an excerpt and an interview with me (and/or order a copy!) here. It’s surprisingly hopeful! one-story.com/product/we-a...
December 18, 2025 at 10:47 PM
My short story “We Are Sorry For Your Suffering” - a sci-fi epistolary tale about the end of the world - is the December issue of @onestorymag.bsky.social! Read an excerpt and an interview with me (and/or order a copy!) here. It’s surprisingly hopeful! one-story.com/product/we-a...
Sometimes, I wish that I could have picked something other than "human" at character creation.
December 18, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Sometimes, I wish that I could have picked something other than "human" at character creation.
"The Everlasting" by @alixeharrow.bsky.social is wonderful. It's a love story, but it's also about how empire turns history into a story to justify its actions and how storytelling allows us to write ourselves a better future. Beautifully written and very important right now.
#booksky
#booksky
December 18, 2025 at 11:21 PM
"The Everlasting" by @alixeharrow.bsky.social is wonderful. It's a love story, but it's also about how empire turns history into a story to justify its actions and how storytelling allows us to write ourselves a better future. Beautifully written and very important right now.
#booksky
#booksky
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
"Smoke bloomed and obscured silver, bone, and the four trinkets. I heard whispers calling for me. The girl’s hand tightened around mine. So could she." 🏜️🐎🔥
New fiction today by Christine Beres: "Horse and Rider"
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
New fiction today by Christine Beres: "Horse and Rider"
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
December 16, 2025 at 4:55 PM
"Smoke bloomed and obscured silver, bone, and the four trinkets. I heard whispers calling for me. The girl’s hand tightened around mine. So could she." 🏜️🐎🔥
New fiction today by Christine Beres: "Horse and Rider"
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
New fiction today by Christine Beres: "Horse and Rider"
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
More ideas. We’re not going to run out of ideas but generative AI is a tool for people who don’t want to be involved in the step between idea and art. People whose own ideas will never evolve or become more complex because they don’t actually want to interact with or examine them.
December 14, 2025 at 1:34 PM
More ideas. We’re not going to run out of ideas but generative AI is a tool for people who don’t want to be involved in the step between idea and art. People whose own ideas will never evolve or become more complex because they don’t actually want to interact with or examine them.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
You don’t write like AI—AI writes like you. Defend the em dash.
December 11, 2025 at 9:38 PM
You don’t write like AI—AI writes like you. Defend the em dash.
Those last few pages of "Children of Time" by @aptshadow.bsky.social filled me with so much joy. Now, as I read the news, all I can do is wonder where the giant, genetically-engineeted spiders are when we really need them.
December 8, 2025 at 6:55 PM
Those last few pages of "Children of Time" by @aptshadow.bsky.social filled me with so much joy. Now, as I read the news, all I can do is wonder where the giant, genetically-engineeted spiders are when we really need them.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
really loved the bunnies; i made sure they were in scene a very brief time, and their owner had them in a large pen with hay and treats otherwise; they were rescue buns who had been dumped in a freezing winter park after years of abuse and now have a pampered life, so i wanted them happy
December 7, 2025 at 3:11 AM
really loved the bunnies; i made sure they were in scene a very brief time, and their owner had them in a large pen with hay and treats otherwise; they were rescue buns who had been dumped in a freezing winter park after years of abuse and now have a pampered life, so i wanted them happy
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
I've been waiting to share this one for a long time.
Transformed by a broad-spread fungal infection that connects humans with nature, one woman feels closer to the world than ever, but further from the people she loves the most...
"All That Means or Mourns" by @r-emrys.bsky.social is out now!
Art by Jacqueline Tam
Edited by @englelaird.bsky.social
"All That Means or Mourns" by @r-emrys.bsky.social is out now!
Art by Jacqueline Tam
Edited by @englelaird.bsky.social
All That Means or Mourns - Reactor
Transformed by a broad-spread fungal infection that connects humans with nature, one woman feels closer to the world than ever, but further from the people she loves the most…
reactormag.com
December 3, 2025 at 2:49 PM
I've been waiting to share this one for a long time.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas”
Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.
Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.
December 2, 2025 at 7:18 PM
“Have Yourself A Merriam Little Christmas”
Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.
Merriam, a career-oriented lexicographer from the city, returns to her small town for the holidays and meets Webster, a ruggedly handsome librarian, who shows her the true DEFINITION of Christmas.
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
Good morning, would you like to be blindsided by an excellent short poem?
Get in, reader, we’re going shopping. Browse the shelves but buyer beware in @shanaross.bsky.social’s new poem “I have been to the market.”
kaleidotrope.net/autumn-2025/...
kaleidotrope.net/autumn-2025/...
December 2, 2025 at 2:33 PM
Good morning, would you like to be blindsided by an excellent short poem?
Reposted by Jessica Sirkin
Was reminded of my very favorite tweet of all time today:
December 2, 2025 at 9:26 PM
Was reminded of my very favorite tweet of all time today:
I had a dream that aliens transformed a man, via metaphor, into a landmass for them to live on. I woke up with these words echoing in my mind.
"It sings in the fields of Daniel Harris. In his hills and woods and swamps, in the blight and the bloom and the waves that lap at his shore, it sings."
"It sings in the fields of Daniel Harris. In his hills and woods and swamps, in the blight and the bloom and the waves that lap at his shore, it sings."
December 2, 2025 at 6:13 PM
I had a dream that aliens transformed a man, via metaphor, into a landmass for them to live on. I woke up with these words echoing in my mind.
"It sings in the fields of Daniel Harris. In his hills and woods and swamps, in the blight and the bloom and the waves that lap at his shore, it sings."
"It sings in the fields of Daniel Harris. In his hills and woods and swamps, in the blight and the bloom and the waves that lap at his shore, it sings."
Doomed lover stories often feel like clockwork: the man does this, the lady does this, and out pops doom like a cuckoo in a clock. @japrenticewrites.bsky.social shows you the mechanism of that story and then does something wonderful with it.
"'Ah, I see,' I said, for I had seen this Story before. 'You are Doomed Lovers. I shall wait then. I will take you soon enough.'" 🐈⬛❤️🔥
New short fiction by @japrenticewrites.bsky.social: "The Horrible Conceit of Death and Night"
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
New short fiction by @japrenticewrites.bsky.social: "The Horrible Conceit of Death and Night"
Read it here: www.apexbookcompany.com/a/blog/apex-...
December 2, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Doomed lover stories often feel like clockwork: the man does this, the lady does this, and out pops doom like a cuckoo in a clock. @japrenticewrites.bsky.social shows you the mechanism of that story and then does something wonderful with it.