Two Murray State faculty publish novels this spring
By Dr. Carrie Jerrell | Jun 16, 2026
MURRAY, Ky. — Two faculty members in the Department of English and Philosophy from Murray State University have had new novels released.
Dr. Gwendolyn Paradice’s novel The Divining Season, published in April by Aunt Lute Books, centers on Emily Howard, a peculiar 11-year-old who suffers from strange illnesses but has the ability to speak to her ancestors. Emily’s arrival to Larissa, Texas, where Native girls are disappearing and decades-old conflicts are hiding just below the surface, changes the search for the missing children and the way the women of Larissa relate to each other.
Vanessa Lillie, bestselling author of the novel Blood Sisters, writes that “The Divining Season is a gorgeously told story of identity and the pursuit of justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women through the compelling and complicated lens of a Cherokee adoptee identity.”
Paradice, an assistant professor of English and coordinator of the creative writing program, is also the author of the Hudson Prize winning short story collection More Enduring for Having Been Broken (Black Lawrence Press, 2021) as well as the chapbook, Carnival Bound (or, Please Unwrap Me), co-authored with poet Kara Dorris (The Cupboard Pamphlet, 2020). Paradice is also a 2024 National Endowment for the Arts Fellow. Their creative work has been nominated for Pushcarts, Best American Essays, and Best of the Net, and their short stories and essays can be found in Booth, Zone 3, Crab Orchard Review, Tin House Online, The Journal of American Folklore and other publications. Paradice earned a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri, a Master of Fine Arts from Bennington College and Master of Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of North Texas, north of Dallas, where they were born and raised.
The Divining Season can be purchased from auntlute.com and other online bookstores. To keep up with Paradice’s publishing news, visit their website, gwendolynparadice.com, or subscribe to their Substack newsletter: “The B-Side of Paradice.”
Dr. T.J. Martinson’s latest novel, Blood River Witch, appeared from Counterpoint Press on June 16. Set on Kentucky’s Blood River, the novel follows Deputy Sheriff Alicia Moore as she investigates the death of her ex-fiance, whose brutal occultist murder strongly resembles a similar murder decades ago.
Matt Bell, acclaimed author of Appleseed, calls Blood River Witch “a beautifully written, tightly plotted thriller I couldn’t put down. A smart rural noir full of occult mysteries, family secrets and truly shocking twists, propelled by the horror of trying to reinvent yourself when the world has already decided who you are.”
Martinson is also the author of The Reign of the Kingfisher (Flatiron Books, 2019) and Her New Eyes (Clash Books, May 2025). His short fiction, poetry and essays have appeared or are forthcoming from Lithub, Oxford American, The Cincinnati Review, Bluestem, Passages North, Permafrost Magazine and Heavy Feather Review, among other publications. His scholarship on literature and science studies has been published in Modern Fiction Studies, American Literature, Poetics Today, Configurations and others. He received his Ph.D. in English from Indiana University and is an assistant professor of English at Murray State.
A book launch for Blood River Witch is scheduled for Wednesday, June 17 at 6:30 p.m. at Wits' End Records (514 Main St. in Murray, Kentucky). The event is free and open to the public, and books will be available for purchase. Blood River Witch can also be purchased via Martinson’s website, tjmartinson.com, as well as other online book retailers. Keep up with Martinson’s publishing news via his website, or find him on Instagram at @tjmartinson or TikTok at @tjmartinsonwritesbooks.
“We are thrilled for Dr. Paradice and Dr. Martinson upon their latest publications,” says Dr. Latricia Trites, chair of the Department of English and Philosophy. “Their achievements reflect the talent and dedication that make the Creative Writing Program in the Department of English and Philosophy so strong. As authors who are current in their fields, they provide our students with invaluable expertise in the classroom.”
For more information on the Creative Writing Program or the Department of English and Philosophy at Murray State, visit murraystate.edu/english.