I'm honored to interview Jenna Snelgrove, one of our Winter 2026 Flash Fiction Contest Runner-Up winners. We'll be chatting about what inspired her flash fiction story, "Maternity Season," how nature influenced her characters, why she submitted her story to WOW, and so much more.
Before you read our discussion, be sure to read her story, "Maternity Season," then come on back. First, here's more about Jenna:
Jenna is an academic advisor who lives in the Thousand Islands region of Ontario. She writes contemporary romance novels, short fiction, and poetry. Another short story of hers received an Honourable Mention in the Women on Writing Flash Fiction contest last year, but she has only recently begun sharing her work beyond the confines of her laptop. Jenna holds a Master of Science in environmental science and a Bachelor of Education. When her nose is not in a book, she’s trying and failing to keep her bad beagle’s nose out of everything else.
-- Interview by Nicole Pyles
WOW: Congrats on winning runner-up for your story, "Maternity Season"! What inspired this story?
Jenna: I’m thrilled others enjoyed this story! It was a joy to write. I must give major kudos to my partner (the real biologist I know) for inspiring this story. When the two of us were students, we both had summer jobs travelling around Ontario for wildlife research—me in a wetsuit looking for fish and mussels, and him with a headlamp monitoring bats and flying squirrels. I lean on his wildlife knowledge a lot, and when I decided I wanted to write a story about bats, he shared some of the contextual knowledge that shaped this story.
WOW: How wonderful to have that kind of context about nature. And I love the connection of nature to the lives of characters. How did you come to make that connection in the story?
Jenna: While researching bats, one of the aspects of their behaviour I found the most fascinating was their dedication to their pups (e.g., mothers migrate to roosting sites, give birth upside down, carry their pups to forage, then teach them how to hunt independently). They reproduce slowly, often having only one pup a year. For any biology-fanatics out there, this is known as a k-selected life strategy, which betters the survival of an individual offspring, but also leaves bat populations susceptible to destabilizing forces, like the fireworks of my story. I couldn’t help but consider the irony in how bats display this level of care in orphaned mines and crumbling structures that highlight humans’ propensity for carelessness.
I imagined my protagonist to be someone feeling reluctant towards her own motherhood journey ahead—perhaps someone who has experienced neglect akin to the buildings she visits each night. While watching the bats, she questions whether she would have the dedication required to be a good mother, like the bats seem to exhibit throughout her surveys. Beyond admiring the bats for their role in their offsprings’ lives as I had done, I enjoyed the idea of her being simultaneously in awe and irritated by their perfection, as if nature was conspiring to reinforce her own fear of inadequacy. In the end, the protagonist’s actions to save the bats from disturbance prove to her that she would and will do anything to protect those she loves.
WOW: What an incredible insight into your character! You created such a vivid setting in so few words. Was this based on a real location at all, or how did you come to create such realistic imagery?
Jenna: The setting is one of the first things that came to mind while writing this story. I decided I wanted to write about a place that was eerie to contrast the comforting theme of motherhood throughout the story. I also thought it would be interesting to write a story that felt like the colour indigo (I know that is strange, but it’s what I was going for). The setting is a fictional place but having spent my life almost exclusively in Ontario, I was inspired by its lakeside landscapes. I can think of a few forgotten churches in remote places that have made me question how they fell into disarray.
WOW: You really chose a fantastic setting. How does your life as an academic advisor inspire your characters or overall creative writing?
Jenna: My work as an academic advisor and my pursuit of writing likely show that I’m nosy about people! I am lucky to get to speak with brilliant students about their goals and motivations, and this touches upon one of the same things I love about writing—human development. Understanding humans—their personalities, their histories, their hurdles—is the best way to develop characters.
WOW: Ha, I can relate to the nosy factor! Congrats again on winning runner-up with WOW! What led you to submit your writing to WOW?
Jenna: When I was first looking into this contest back in 2025, I first came across the story of the winner of the Summer 2024 contest—Emily Shipman’s short story, “Sorry Do I Know You.” I remember loving this story and feeling grateful to have discovered an international contest where writers could share work that was intelligent, incisive, and also entertaining. I felt inspired to try to do the same, and I’ve been so appreciative of the encouragement WOW offers to writers at every stage.
WOW: I love hearing that story inspired you! How does your knowledge of environmental science influence your writing?
Jenna: For a long time, I viewed my interest in writing as being separate from my background in environmental science. These pursuits are often categorized as being left-brained or right-brained activities, respectively, so I thought my life in science would be more of a hindrance than a help to my writing. That said, I love stories that incorporate an author’s unique interests, and I seem compelled to add a bird or two into nearly everything I write. Environmental science’s influence on my writing is evident in the appreciation of nature embedded into my stories, the settings my stories appear in (often rural), or sometimes the odd plot point about a random environmental policy.
WOW: I do too! Seeing those interests in someone else's writing is fascinating. What are you working on that you can tell us about?
Jenna: I have just begun working on a new contemporary romance novel about a woman who gets swept into the filming of a fantasy television series when her bird of prey is cast in a featured role. Many of the characters so far are animals with large personalities who live at her father’s wildlife rescue center. It has been fun to look into the habits of various birds and meld the wild world of the outdoors with the highly structured environment of a film set.
WOW: That sounds interesting! Thank you so much for your time today. Best of luck on your novel!
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