iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Deborah @deborahzafer.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

🖤

Photograph from September 11
Wislawa Szymborska

Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Here is a piece about books, reading, and the power of a writing practice. Many thanks to Cynthia Newberry Martin at How We Spend Our Days. #writingcommunity #amwriting #author substack.com/home/post/p-...

substack.com

How We Spend Our Days: MAUREEN AITKEN

August 2026

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Kendra Bean @kendrabean.bsky.social · 02/01/2025

25 books I want to read in 2025 12. ARCADIA by Lauren Groff #booksky #25in2025 💙📚

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Raider @iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

President Kennedy's family created the profile in courage award in 1989 to honor Kennedy and to recognize political bravery. The John F. Kennedy Library and Museum announced Twin Cities residents have earned the Profile in Courage Award.

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I’m looking forward to reading with these wonderful folks tonight!

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Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

"Every time someone punches Bozo in the face, he flies back up, smiling. He takes a hit like a Weeble Wobble" Wow, brilliant writing here from @maureenaitken.bsky.social, great use of metaphor and so much rippling away underneath

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Brett Pribble @brettpribble.bsky.social · 03/01/2026

Read "Bozo" written by @maureenaitken.bsky.social and illustrated by @brooksiesbooks.bsky.social. "This isn’t just a Bozo the Clown Classic Punching Bag. This is training. Every time someone punches Bozo in the face, he flies back up, smiling." tinyurl.com/mwy8a3e5

tinyurl.com

Bozo — Ghost Parachute

This isn’t just a Bozo the Clown Classic Punching Bag. This is training. Every time someone punches Bozo in the face, he flies back up, smiling. He takes a hit like a Weeble Wobble. He won’t fall down...

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

It's publication day for The Patron Saint of Lost Girls! You can get your copy through my website or from your favorite #bookseller maureenaitken.com #survival #thepatronsaintoflostgirls #midwest #maureenaitken #domesticlife #shortstorycollection #readingcommunity #literaryfiction #availablenow

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 06/08/2025

I’m thrilled that my collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, is available for preorder through the links below. Thank you to Wayne State University Press for this beautiful reissue! wsupress.wayne.edu/9780814352465/ www.amazon.com/Patron-Saint...

wsupress.wayne.edu

The Patron Saint of Lost Girls

Award-winning stories about growing up and finding resiliency amid uncertainty. In 1970s and '80s Detroit, the city wrestles with an u...

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 13/07/2025

“I suppose you are scared too because you read poetry. Each of us decided to dig a hole in the ground to reach out to the other hand of our fate.” From The Rules of Blind Obedience by Amirah Al Wassif This reads like a memoir and poetry. Lovely.

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womensartbluesky.bsky.social @womensartbluesky.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Lucy Culliton, contemporary Australian artist, known for her paintings of landscapes and still lifes #WomensArt

Painting of red poppies in seven differently shaped clear glass bottles on a shelf or table top

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 28/06/2025

Many thanks to everyone at The Missouri Review for selecting my short story as a finalist for The Perkoff Prize! The story will be published in August. Congratulations to all of the winners! missourireview.com/contests/per... #writingcommunity #fiction #shortstory

missourireview.com

Past Winners | The Missouri Review

Discovering the best in fiction, essays, and poetry

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

“Stand, in the end, you'll still be you One that's done all the things you set out to do Stand, there's a cross for you to bear Things to go through if you're goin' anywhere.” RIP Sly Stone🥺 #slyandthefamilystone www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...

rollingstone.com

Sly Stone, Family Stone Architect Who Fused Funk, Rock, and Soul, Dead at 82

Sly Stone, the wildly inventive musician and head of Sly & the Family Stone who fused rock, funk and soul, has died at age 82.

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 04/06/2025

Wayne State University Press (@WSUpress) will release a new edition of my collection, The Patron Saint of Lost Girls, this September. Many thanks to the Wayne State University Press team for the new cover. #shortstory #flashfiction #writingcommunity #fictionwriter #5amwritersclub

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 03/06/2025

Day 4 of #1000wordsofsummer complete. I’m watching inspirational athlete interviews to stay limber. @jamiattenberg.bsky.social.

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Jacqs @fooyoo2.bsky.social · 26/05/2025

anderust
+
swedish.wanderlust 19h
Norway just evacuated a student from Harvard-not a war zone, but an American university. As someone who now resides in Sweden, I find it hauntingly symbolic. The
"land of the free" was never truly free-just expertly packaged.
When Nordic countries start extracting their citizens from
Ivy League campuses for safety, it's not just a red flag.
It's a siren.

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 16/05/2025

Many thanks to @mczyzniejewski.bsky.social and @mooncityreview.bsky.social for publishing my retelling of Hopper’s “Summer Evening.” First of two pages below. #writingcommunity #writer #readersofbluesky

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Boze Herrington, Library Owl @sketchesbyboze.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

“Just calm down and let people enjoy chatgpt.” Sorry, no. I find it creepy that folks are treating a machine that mimics human speech as their friend / therapist. It is feeding you lies. It is destroying your thinking abilities. Shut it off. Talk to other humans. Go outside.

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Matt Kendrick @mattkendrick.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

ICYMI - my May #CraftArticle - which I promise will be the last time I bang on about climbing stairs!!! (can't believe I was still in the midst of that this time last week 🤪)

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

Congrats to Ben Tanzer for the publication of After Hours, a fine book about his father, grief, and the power of film.

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

“SLY LIVES!” It just gutted me for the right reasons: yes, Sly Stone is the beautiful being I remembered and yes he made the music we believed in when we needed it most. Those incandescent sounds are more amazing now. Long live Sly Stone. #SlyStone #SlyandtheFamilyStone #Questlove #documentary

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Barlow Adams @barlowadams.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

Now is a time of perceived powerlessness for many, of despair, when things feel truly hopeless and meaningless. It is in these moments when small kindnesses mean so much. Check on people. Help strangers. Tell people you care. It’s trite, but even little lights shine brightly in dark times.

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Christopher Webb @cwebbonline.com · 29/03/2025

Elon Musk takes $8 million a day from the federal government—your tax dollars—while doing zero philanthropic work. No giving back to society. FOCUS: gutting jobs in the most ruthless way possible. Hoarding wealth, boosting Nazis, and leaving folks terrified about their future.

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

Sarah Freleigh’s book looks amazing.

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 20/03/2025

If you are at AWP LA this looks like a gem.

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Ryan F. Love @rflove.bsky.social · 14/03/2025

A delightful piece anytime, but an especially good Friday afternoon read, I think.

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Sarah Freligh @sfreligh.bsky.social · 10/03/2025

Thanks to the hard-working judges and congratulations to everyone who made the final, short or long list!

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Jay Innis Murray @jayinnismurray.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

550th bday for Michelangelo. @six18sfoundry.bsky.social

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Amy Stuber @amystuber.com · 06/03/2025

Are you seeking distraction from our current fucked-up-ness? Maybe you want to read SAD GROWNUPS? It's been categorized as both absurdist and metaphysical - make of that what you will! Anyway, I hope you'll consider reading/ordering/sharing. #booksky #writingcommunity bookshop.org/p/books/sad-...

bookshop.org

Sad Grownups

Check out Sad Grownups - For those who've been sad and tried not to be, seventeen stories about the absurdity of searching for joy in a dying world. A neighborhoo...

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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

Trump plans to kill more Ukrainians by sending them to his concentration camps or returning them to an active war zone. #3E #StandWithUkraine

Trump to revoke legal status for 240,000 Ukrainians as US steps up deportations

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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

What a much-needed boost to see my piece in the Longlist. Thank you @fracturedlit.bsky.social.

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SmokeLong Quarterly @smokelong.bsky.social · 15/02/2025

On the blog this week: SmokeLong Workshop Prize long-listee @jekwriter.bsky.social on the journey of her story “Would You Rather Freeze to Death or Burn to Death?” from its inception in the 2024 March Micro Marathon to publication in Gooseberry Pie Lit Magazine www.smokelong.com/an-interview...

smokelong.com

An Interview with Jessica Klimesh - SmokeLong Quarterly

In 2024 SmokeLong hosted our second SmokeLong Workshop Prize competition. Our workshop participants reported almost 300 publications to us before November 1, 2024. In 2025, we’ll be featuring one writ...

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Anonymous @youranoncentral.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

In Germany over 200,000 protestors in Munich gathered against the Musk backed far-right / neo-Nazi AfD ahead of the German election. Thousands chanted "Save Democracy" and "Oppose Nazis" #3E

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