The John S. Lucas Great River Reading Series (GRRS) is hosting author Maureen Aitken. 

Maureen Aitken’s short-story collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, was reissued in September 2025 by Wayne State University Press, and we are very fortunate to have her here with us at WSU. 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 Patron Saint of Lost Girls was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Her stories have been published in journals such as Prairie Schooner and New Letters, and most recently, she was a finalist for The Missouri Review’s Perkoff Prize. Maureen Aitken has taught at the University of Michigan, the University of Minnesota, and Hamline University.