Del Staecker

Del Staecker (born November 23, 1950) is an American writer of novels, novellas, short stories and non-fiction in a number of genres, including suspense, crime, philosophical fiction, satire and memoir.

Staecker, a life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Knight of Honor in the Order of the Knights Hospitaller, is best known for his World War II bio-memoirs (non-fiction), his suspense trilogy set in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lived for many years, and his crime stories set in the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, where he was born and raised.

Both his fiction and non-fiction writings have garnered numerous awards. In 2012 he was named "Writer on Deck" by the United States Navy, and finalist for Author of the Year by the Military Writers Society of America. Nicolas Gage, co-executive producer of The Godfather Part III, said of Staecker's first book, [it is] "...as rich, complex and satisfying as the best works of Raymond Chandler and Elmore Leonard". one of six children born to Irvin H. Staecker, a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II, and Dorothy Bettenhausen Staecker. where he was an Honors graduate (Class of 1972). He then served in the United States Army, where he assisted with Operation Babylift, relocating children from Vietnam. The Donor Bill of Rights was endorsed by the Independent Sector, National Catholic Development Conference (NCDC) National Committee on Planned Giving (NCPG), the Council for Resource Development (CRD), and the United Way of America.

Tired of fundraising and looking for something to do to change his life, Staecker left the world he knew in 2006, moved to an isolated cabin near Riggins, Idaho and ran a white-water rafting company while writing his first novel. That novel, The Muted Mermaid, received positive reviews. Both books won critical acclaim, and the trilogy was described as "a deftly written masterpiece" by Midwest Book Review.

Sailor Man: The Troubled Life and Times of J.P. Nunnally, USN (non-fiction), followed in 2015, from the letters of a sailor who served on the USS Fuller along with Irvin Staecker, Del's father. The reviewer for the Military Writers Society of America noted that Sailor Man "gives the reader a greater appreciation for the sailor, Marines and soldiers who weathered deadly maelstroms of destruction in taking fortified Pacific Islands". The title was also named a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Awards in 2015.

In 2012, Staecker was invited to submit a story for a collection of crime tales. Staecker has chaired the Hammett Prize Reading Committee three times.

Staecker's work Job 2.0: God and Lucifer Battle Again for a Single Soul, published 2019, has been called "imaginatively thoughtful and thought-provoking..." (Midwest Book Review), "mind-boggling", "enlightening" (Military Writers Society of America), and "...humorous and inspirational..." (Underrated Reads).

Published in January 2022, Staecker's most recent work Tard is a multiformat, multigenre exploration into the spiritual response to the effects of crime. Sandra Miller Linhart, an award-winning author, called the book "beautiful," writing that she "cried so much—ugly cry, beautiful cry, inspired cry...". UNDERRATED READS said, "TARD is a unique novel and one of those literary gems that is hard to come by. A must-read!" Published in 2024, Another Southside is a lengthy compendium of crime stories linked to Chicago's Southside detective Jake Thompson.

Published works

Non-fiction The Lady Gangster: A Sailor’s Memoir (2009) Sailor Man: The Troubled Life and Times of J.P. Nunnally, USN (2015)

Fiction The Muted Mermaid (2008) Shaved Ice (2008) Chocolate Soup (2010) Tales of Tomasewski (2012) More Tomasewski (2014) One Good Man (2016) Job 2.0: God and Lucifer Battle Again for a Single Soul (2019) Tard (2022)

Honors, decorations, awards and distinctions Lifetime Fellow, Royal Society of Arts (UK)

2022 TAZ Award for fiction, The Author Zone (Tard)

2023 Finalist, Author of the Year, Military Writers Society of America