A Brand New Saint: Stories by Mary Renzi


Mary Renzi grew up reading the Wizard of Oz and Peter Pan, then developed a love of science fiction, horror, and the Beat Generation. Her stories reflect these influences, as well as her experiences as an English major at Arizona State University and her career as a wild-land firefighter, working from Oregon and California to Colorado and New Mexico.

When discussions on A Brand New Saint began in 2016, Mary Renzi sent her publisher a list of titles, but no manuscript. Delay led to delay led to cancer, and the book became a posthumous Collected Stories, some from her files, many published in One Throne Magazine, The Newer York, Pantheon Magazine, The Molotov Cocktail, Hypnos, Swamp Biscuits & Tea, and Aphotic Realm Magazine. “Mary Renzi’s collection is, by turns, funny, poignant, courageous, a little smart-alecky (in the best possible way), with just the right touch of social consciousness furbished to a blinding but never preachy shine,” writes Gary A. Braunbeck, seven-time recipient of the Bram Stoker Award for horror writing.

This is everything that the finest of story collections should be.