Maureen Aitken presents The Patron Saint of Lost Girls with Elizabeth Oness

In 1970s and '80s Detroit, the city wrestles with an unending economic downturn, increasing violence, and white exodus to the suburbs. Amid all of this is twentysomething Mary who is just trying to grapple with her identity in a world filled with uncertainty.

In this collection of linked stories, we follow Mary as she seeks to cope with and withstand hardship and confront her fears of exploitation, abuse, and death. Along the way, she delves into the complex yet nurturing relationships with her family and friends who teach her to love better, live fuller andquestion power. The Patron Saint of Lost Girls presents an unflinching tale of life in the late twentieth-century postindustrial Midwest.

Maureen Aitken’s short-story collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, received a Kirkus star and won the Nilsen Prize and the Foreword Review INDIE Gold Prize for General Fiction. It was reissued by Wayne State University Press in September, 2025. Her stories have earned a Minnesota State Arts Board’s Artist Initiative Grant, a Loft Mentor Award, an award from Ireland’s Fish Short Story Prize, and two Pushcart Prize nominations. The book was also a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Her stories have been widely published in journals including Prairie Schooner, The Missouri Review, and New Letters. She has taught writing at the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and Hamline University.

Elizabeth Oness is a writer and musician who lives on a biodynamic farm in Minnesota. Her work has appeared in The Georgia Review, The Gettysburg Review, Glimmer Train, The Hudson Review, The Tahoma Literary Review, and other magazines. Her stories have received an O. Henry Prize, a Nelson Algren Award, and the Crazyhorse (now Swamp Pink) Fiction Prize. Her books include: Articles of Faith (Iowa Short Fiction Prize), Departures (Penguin), Twelve Rivers of the Body (Gival Press Novel Award), Fallibility, (New Rivers Press Many Voices Award) and Leaving Milan (Bright Horse Books Novel Award). Her latest collection of stories, The Hopefuls, was published by Cornerstone Press in May 2025.

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