Awards and Other Accolades
“Erotic Tales From the MLA Handbook” selected as a finalist in the Wicked Wit poetry contest, from Public Poetry, June 2020.
Winner of a residency stay at The Unruly Retreat, July 2020.
Nominated for Best of the Net by Up North Lit for “Cubs at Brewers,” September 2018.
Winner of the 2018 John Wood Award, March 2018.
Third Place Winner of the Joy Scantlebury Award for Poetry, March 2018.
Winner of the 2017 John Wood Award, May 2017.
Second Place Winner of the Joy Scantlebury Award for Poetry, May 2017.
Artist-in-Residency, Arteles Creative Residency Program, Hameenkyro, Finland, March 2015. [Features article about the experience here]
Runner-Up in the Cultural Center of Cape Cod 2014 Poetry Competition judged by George Bilgere, for “Making Stroopwafels,” September 2014.
Poetry
“Where my Hips Used to Be,” “The First Rule of Adultery,” and “The Windy City Blues” published in Great Lakes Review, May 13, 2021.
“Erotic Tales From the MLA Handbook” published in Wicked Wit, November 2020.
“Living Room Love Poem” published in Nightingale & Sparrow Magazine, February 2020.
“What Loneliness Does” published in MockingHeart Review, February 2020.
“The Last King Cake” published in Crab Orchard Review, December 2019.
“If Real Like Worked Like my iPhone” published in La Scrittrice, August 30, 2019.
“Vanishing Twin” published in Snapdragon: A Journal of Art and Healing, September 2018.
“A Decade Ago in the Illinois Twilight” published in Mockingheart Review, Autumn 2018.
“Cubs at Brewers” and “Baraboo” published in Up North Lit, Spring 2018.
“Scrabble Strategy” The Poeming Pigeon: Love Poems, December 2017.
Broadside of Aurora Violet published by Yellow Flag Press.
“The Opposite of Love” published at Red Eft Review, April 4, 2017.
“Unilateral Salpingo-Oopherectomy” published in Ninth Letter, Winter 2017.
“The Way Into My Pants” published in Cliterature, Winter 2016.
“Burning Birch” published in Portage Magazine, Spring 2016.
“Marshall Fields, December 1988” published at Silver Birch Press, December 18, 2015.
“Hippie Christmas” published in the 2016 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets.
“Making Stroopwafels,” “First Thanksgiving,” and “Making Love at the 7-11” published in Eunoia Review, June 2015.
“Lessons of Hindsight” published in Portage Magazine, Spring 2015.
“Baby Grand” re-published with proper acknowledgement in the 2015 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar by the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets, Late Fall 2014.
“Emoticon” published in Gold Dust Magazine, Issue 24, December 2013.
“Sunday Mornings” published in The Mid-America Poetry Review, Volume III, Number 1, Spring 2002.
“Baby Grand” published in The Mid-America Poetry Review, Volume II, Number 1, Spring 2001.
“My Silver Clock and Your Pine Mantel” published in RagMag, Volume 17 Number 2, Summer 2001.
Non-Fiction
“‘Achtung Baby’ by U2–How I Survived my Adolescence” published by Memoir Mixtapes, Volume 2, B-Side, January, 2018.
Readings
Online reading for Public Poetry’s Wicked Wit book launch, November 21, 2020.
Interview and reading on Electric Poetry WYCE 88.1, September 22, 2020.
Journalism and Freelance Work
“How to Use the GI Bill for IT Certifications” CompTIA IT Career News, November 9, 2017.
“Testing Accommodations for People with Disabilities: Your Questions Answered” CompTIA IT Career News, October 13, 2017.
“Taking on Jimmy Swaggart” Louisiana Super Lawyers Magazine, January 2017.
“Happy to Hear from Mr. Lee” Louisiana Super Lawyers Magazine [cover story], January 2016.
“The other side” Capital Newspapers (Baraboo News Republic, Portage Daily Register, and others) May 2, 2015.
“‘Whatever it takes:’ Fundraiser will help pay for child’s medical costs” Baraboo News Republic, July 26, 2013.
“Bar-goers can get free rides home through Bar Buddies Boo” Baraboo News Republic, May 28, 2013.
“Career of Service: Baraboo’s Stopper retires from National Guard with highest enlisted ranking possible” Baraboo News Republic, May 11, 2013.
“Baraboo ‘has real Rockwellian Feel‘” Baraboo News Republic, March 23, 2013.
Staff Reporter for the Wisconsin Dells Events, January 2005 through July 2008 (many, many articles written and published).
Online Presence
Podcast interviewee for The SAFTAcast, May 6, 2015 “Episode 28: The RANDAcast” [Starts at 57:15].
Guest Blogger for Newfound Journal, April 22, 2015 “Behind the Tweet: Memorable Moments from AWP15.”
Guest Blogger for Blounty County TN Moms Today (link now dead), August 2011 “Working Mom Vs. Working Dad.”
Guest Blogger for Rants From Mommyland, February 2011 “Domestic Enemies of the Small-Town Mom.”
Other
Author of “Interpreting Bishop” A short play in the CAB Theater production of “Lost” performed at University of Wisconsin-Baraboo/Sauk County, May 2015.
The role of “Foosball-Winning Wife” in Blaine’s Farm and Fleet commercial, originally aired December 2013.
[As Jessica Leichsenring] Subject of interview for “Family Dinner: Treasured Tradition Or Bygone Ideal?“on All Things Considered, National Public Radio, February 26, 2013.
[As Jessica Leichsenring] Contributor to It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure January 10. (Also referenced in the Teaching Guide for this book.)
Jessica S. Frank 