Jenny Wong is a writer, traveler, and occasional business analyst. Her favorite places to wander are Tokyo alleys, Singapore hawker centers, and Parisian cemeteries. Her work was selected for Best Microfiction 2025 and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, the Best of the Net Anthology, Best Small Fiction, Best Microfiction, and The Forward Prize - Best Single Poem (Written). Her debut chapbook is “Shiftings & Other Coordinates of Disorder” (Pinhole Poetry, 2024). She resides in Canada near the Rocky Mountains where she makes short poetry films and plans her next adventures.
Website: https://opencorners.ca/about
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jenwithwords
X: @jenwithwords
Bluesky: @jenwithwords.bsky.social
Her latest chapbook ‘Light Chemical Sea’ will be out in Fall 2026 with Bull City Press. Sign up here to receive a one time email that will notify you when the book is released.
If you aren’t familiar with her work, here’s one of her pieces to start things off:
The Time Pirate Who Waits Ashore (Jenny Wong | Flash Flood)
Why I like it (MK): I love how the title creates intrigue - when you only have 100 words to play with, titles are a much greater part of the piece, and this title adds something concrete to what follows. I love the immediate sense of character created by “she sips morning coffee from a gun barrel” but how that information is made unreliable by the preceding “Rumours say”. Then we have the contrasting juxtaposition of “reality”, the shift into sadness but the theme of pirating continuing to build, everything tumbling together towards that powerful final sentence.
(JW) When I started this list, I was attempting to collect stories that showcased the five senses and I was determined to find two stories per sense. However, I soon shifted away from this hard constraint onto picking pieces that simply resonated with me at that more sensory level. The final stories I’ve selected, although still rich with sensory details, orbit around surreal imagery, themes of memory, and moons.
Claire de Lune (Elena Zhang | In Short)
Why I like it: In a single 26-word sentence, a story is told. This, in my opinion, is no easy feat and it is executed beautifully. The title prompts the first few song notes to play in my head as I read, and a few words in, the aboutness of the scene rushes to the surface. I am never directly told who, what, where, or why, and yet all the gaps have been filled and before I know it, the story is over, and I go back to re-read it again.
PROMPT: Pick one of the 5 senses and write a single sentence scene that revolves around it. Try to answer where, when, who, and why?
I Love the Bones of You, Mum (James Montgomery | Splonk)
Why I like it: This should probably be more like “Why I LOVE it”. This story seamlessly blends the surreal with the real. It depicts the gentle care of an aging mother, but in such a unique and fascinating way. I am in love with the idea of cleaning her bones on the “delicate cycle” and the easing of said bones back into her body like tent poles. These images evoke visuals of thin skin over a sparse frame, and speaks to something both fragile and resilient. The subject matter could very easily slip into the macabre or the clinical, but never does, and the fact that what is happening is so surreal adds depth to the spare lines of dialogue, giving color and shape to the narrator, the mother, and their time-bound relationship.
I can't drink coffee without thinking (Sylvia Santiago | Gone Lawn)
Why I like it: Grand adventure and wild roadtrip tales are great, but I have a fondness for those quiet stories that nestle in between obvious milestones. This piece pays beautiful tribute to those little moments that stick with you. It’s not the concert or sights along the drive that are focused on, but a single decision which allows underlying emotions to break a moment wide open, revealing unspoken things that have been lost, but still ripple into the current day.
Other World (Kelli Short Borges | Bull)
Why I like it: This story starts deceptively normal. A school teacher is driving to work, the detritus of toddlerhood in the back seat. But here is where the story takes a turn. The teacher talks to his students about alternate universes and it’s fascinating what each student reveals when talking about the universe that comes to their minds. It’s clever, quick, and a unique way to give an instant background story to a character. But it’s the ending, where the teacher’s desired universe is revealed, that reminds the reader how normal appearances can hide such underlying devastation.
One Night the Moon Starts Crying (Francine Witte | Fractured Lit)
Why I like it: The idea of small town folks and a crying moon immediately piques my interest, but beneath it is a helplessness as they succumb to days of downpour and run out of ways to deal with it. I love how this story holds small wisdoms and social commentary at the end about moving on, temporary phases, and how to bring light back into the world.
Alice Carries the Moon (Emma Phillips | Literary Namjooning)
Why I like it: A beautiful and surreal depiction of a girl and a treasured moon that condenses into a complex relationship between her and her mother. There is something very relatable as she struggles to hang onto something that she knows is both powerful and precious in the wake of everyone else attempting to bring her back to earth. Also, who doesn’t want to hold a moon?
Plastic Rivers (Shome Dasgupta | Centaur Lit)
Why I like it: I like how this piece explores music, how it changes perceptions, takes us back to small towns and small joys with old technology. There is a strong feeling of movement in this piece. I feel swept up and carried along for the ride and even the clever use of em dashes give a visual blip between scenes as I am shown various scenes of memory.
Sunset Fatigue (Mileva Anastasiadou | Milk Candy Review)
Why I like it: I’m a big fan of alternative stories and endings to well known characters. The Little Prince is no exception. What happens after all of the adventures? With the underlying themes of aging and loss alongside sunsets this piece is already packed with emotional resonance, but then there is also the repetition of “But this isn’t a ____ story” that starts nearly every paragraph, which gives a feeling of searching, of hinting that the story isn’t over, but is still changing.
PROMPT: Tell a story whose paragraphs begin with the same phrase which allows a new unusual detail to be added to the storyline.
In April, Hartley wakes to find two bumps (Cole Beauchamp | Flash Boulevard)
Why I like it: A fantastical event about a woman growing antlers, not-so-random facts, and clinical events all weave together, relate, and layer upon each other for quite a thoroughly enjoyable story. I both loved and felt frustrated by the parts where the doctors tell Hartley there is nothing wrong and everything is normal even though there is something clearly happening to her body, a transformation that is very obvious to her and yet everyone else cannot see. It speaks to me about how much of what goes on with women’s bodies is explained away even if there is truly something going on.
At the edge of mist (Marcelle Newbold | Gone Lawn)
Why I like it: Dream sequences are one of my favorite things to read because they bring longings and unsaid thoughts to the surface and can play in a setting where the happenings can be free of real-world constraints. This dream is brief, and yet it is filled with small details about the inhabitants. There are pieces of the person being missed, a boat, a crinkle of silver foil, and yet, even in the dream the presence is felt but the dreamer never actually sees the person.
What did you think of these choices? Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments - have you found a new favourite piece? Did you try out one of the prompts?
Next month’s selection will be chosen by Bronwen Griffiths and will be appearing (fingers crossed) on the 19th August.
Opportunities to work with Matt
BEYOND THESE SHORES (panel discussion): 5th August 2025,19:00-20:30 BST (open for bookings)
I HEAR VOICES (workshop): 2nd September 2025,19:00-20:30 BST (open for bookings)
I HEAR VOICES (workshop): 6th September 2025,09:00-10:30 BST (open for bookings)
GLORIOUS WORDS: 8th-21st September 2025 (open for bookings)
GO WITH THE FLOW: 13th-26th October 2025 (email me on matt@mattkendrick.co.uk to get your name on the priority list)
LYRICAL WRITING: 10th-23rd November 2025 (email me on matt@mattkendrick.co.uk to get your name on the priority list)
Editing
NOVEL / NOVELLA EDITING: First steps review / structural review / line edit / submission review
EDITING FOR COLLECTIONS: Structural overview report / line edit
SHORT FICTION EDITING: Structural review / line edit / detailed edit
Phenomenal choices. Thoroughly enjoyed them all but Claire de Lune stopped me.