Alyssa Wong

Alyssa Wong has established herself as a distinctive voice in speculative fiction through her unflinching exploration of hunger—both literal and metaphorical—as a lens for examining identity, desire, and the margins of society. Her breakout story “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” became a phenomenon in genre circles, earning recognition from two of speculative fiction’s most prestigious institutions: the 2015 Nebula Award for Best Short Story and the 2016 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction. This dual recognition speaks to Wong’s ability to craft narratives that resonate across the broader speculative fiction community, blending visceral emotional intensity with inventive worldbuilding.

What sets Wong apart is her unflinching approach to uncomfortable subjects and her gift for embedding social commentary within compulsively readable prose. Her stories often center marginalized perspectives and explore how systems of power shape individual lives, themes she pursues with both lyrical precision and dark humor. The success of “Hungry Daughters of Starving Mothers” demonstrated her talent for taking a single, potent metaphor and expanding it into something that feels simultaneously personal and universal—a quality that has made her one of the most exciting voices emerging from the short fiction landscape in recent years.