Susan Wiggs’ novel “Wayward Girls” was published a year ago today and a new paperback edition is now available in bookstores. The story, set in the 1960s, follows girls sent to the Good Shepherd Refuge in Buffalo, part of a network of Catholic reformatory institutions.
Wiggs, a New York Times bestselling author, grew up in Olean. She started researching reformatories after a trip back to Western New York.
“In 2021, my big brother and I decided to revisit the places of our childhood,” she explained. “Jon was facing a terminal diagnosis, and this nostalgic journey was on his bucket list.”
Outside a church they had attended as children, Wiggs was struck by a vivid memory.
“I suddenly recalled Jon serving as an altar boy, and one unforgettable incident when his sleeve caught fire from the incense thurible, a brazier swinging with coals and incense during high mass,” she said. “Jon confirmed it had really happened, and that it marked the abrupt end of his altar boy career. A version of that memory appears in the early chapters of ‘Wayward Girls,’ offering a moment of comic relief that helps humanize Mairin, the novel’s main character.”
She began researching the Catholic Church’s influence in the 1960s and ’70s. That led her to learn about the Magdalene laundries where “wayward” girls and young women were sent.
“As a child, I remember more than one babysitter who ‘went away,’ a euphemism for girls sent into exile after becoming pregnant,” said Wiggs. “The more I learned, the more deeply I felt the helpless pain and rage of those young women.”
When “Wayward Girls” came out in hardcover in 2025, Wiggs heard from many readers with whom the story resonated. “I never anticipated the response the book would receive after its publication in July,” she said. “The critical reviews were gratifying, but the most meaningful feedback came directly from readers. They told me they felt every emotion I poured into the story—hope, fear, outrage, suspense, and, ultimately, a sense of justice and closure.”
Readers can find Wiggs online through a number of platforms:
https://www.instagram.com/susan_wiggs