iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 10/10/2026

I’m thrilled to be teaching an online course in flash fiction using time and place on November 10th at 6-8 p.m. The course is structured for beginning and experienced writers. I would love to see you there. writingworkshops.com/collections/...

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

🖤

Photograph from September 11
Wislawa Szymborska

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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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Maureen Aitken @maureenaitken.bsky.social · 10/01/2026

Wonderful work, Matt. Congratulations!

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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 · 07/06/2025

This is such a beautiful and wise piece. It moves through like mapping new territory.

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

Thank you, Elizabeth.😊 That is “Scavengers.” It means a lot that you remember it years later.

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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

Thank you, Michael! This story came from a @sfreligh.bsky.social class. 😊

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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 · 03/05/2025

It’s still wildly impressive. Congratulations! 🎉 🥳

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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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