Jessica is a screenwriter and playwright who also writes fiction.
She loves to write weird and clever little screenplays, plays and short stories featuring anachronistically feminist characters behaving badly. She’s a sucker for bizarre story structure, metafiction, and cinematic gimmicks. And if you add classical allusions to the mix? Don’t tempt her with a good time!
In 2023, she WON the prestigious Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition; in 2024 she was named a SEMIFINALIST in that same competition. Her play Stand By was recently named a finalist in the Tennessee Williams One Act Play Competition. She has also been recognized as a fiction finalist at the Tucson Festival of Books Literary Awards, long listed for CRAFT’s Flash Fiction Prize, and awarded a Core Residency in screenwriting at Millay Arts. Her fiction has been published in the Jet Fuel Review and she is an incoming MFA Candidate in Creative Writing (Fiction) at Bennington College, Class of 2027.
fiction
Check out Jessica’s most recently published short story, A Woman Screams, in the 29th issue of the Jet Fuel Review! This piece is (very) loosely based on the (very) real 1947 death of Evelyn McHale; it experiments with white space and narrative voice.
Screenplays
Good evening, Marshall (good Evening, geraldine)
Short
Geraldine and Marshall need everything to be perfect and they work very, very hard to keep it that way, thank you very much. When one of them questions the rigid rules of their game, their literal reset button stops working and they are forced to confront reality or risk losing each other forever.
WINNER 2023 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition
FINALIST 2024 Sedona International Film Festival Screenplay Competition
SEMIFINALIST 2024 Outstanding Screenplays Shorts Competition
SEMIFINALIST 2024 Atlanta Film Festival Screenplay Competition
HONOURABLE MENTION 2024 Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition
routine procedure
Short
A woman picks her disoriented boyfriend up from the doctor after a routine procedure and they work their way home on the subway - but all is not as it seems.
SEMIFINALIST 2024 Austin Film Festival Screenplay Competition
SEMIFINALIST 2025 Cinequest Screenwriting Competition
HONOURABLE MENTION 2025 Big Apple Film Festival Screenplay Competition
Stage Plays
The murder of sherlock holmes: A detective collective mystery
Two Act Play , written with Keith Rubin
Sherlock Holmes has been murdered! But by whom? A team of elite investigators from literature and pop culture descend on the scene to help local policeman Bert crack the case. Will the detectives be able to set aside their personal differences in time to find the killer? Will the 8 actors, who play all the parts, make their quick changes? Find out in this fast-paced, comedic mystery for the stage.
STAND BY
One Act Play
A man is accused of an unforgivable thing, but this play is not about him. It is about Astrid, his wife, and Kathleen, his mother, as they negotiate the collapse of the world they thought they knew. TW: Sexual Assault
FINALIST 2025 Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival One Act Contest
the a train anthology
Collaborative One Act Play written with Various Artists
Short scenes by Jessica and five other writers are placed next to and in conversation with each other to paint a picture of what humanity looks like on the “A” train in New York City. Produced in winter 2024 by Divine Riot.