About

Paula Martinac is the author of seven novels –  Dear Miss Cushman (2021); Testimony (2021); Clio Rising (2019), Gold Medal Winner, Northeast Region, Independent Publishers Book Awards 2020; The Ada Decades (2017), finalist for the Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBTQ Fiction; the Lambda Literary Award-winning Out of Time (1990; 2012 e-book); the Lammy-nominated Home Movies (1993); and Chicken (1997; 2001 reprint). Paula’s short stories appeared in The Raleigh Review, Minerva Rising, and Main Street Rag, among many others. For more information about her books, visit the Fiction page.

Paula’s other publications include three nonfiction books – notably, The Queerest Places: A National Guide to Gay and Lesbian Historic Sites (1997) – and numerous articles, essays and short stories on LGBTQ themes. She wrote the biweekly column “Lesbian Notions” on LGBTQ politics and culture from 1997 to 2005, and it was syndicated in the LBGTQ press. She blogs about queer history and historic sites at The Queerest Places.

Also a playwright, Paula’s plays have had productions with Pittsburgh Playwrights Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Source, the Pittsburgh New Works Festival, the Ganymede Festival, No Name Players, and others. Her full-length screenplay, Foreign Affairs, about the love affair between journalist Dorothy Thompson and novelist Christa Winsloe, finished second place in the 2003 POWER UP screenwriting contest.

In 2019, Paula received two writing fellowships: a Creative Renewal Fellowship from the Arts and Science Council; and a Literature Fellowship from the North Carolina Arts Council.

Originally from Pittsburgh, Paula spent most of her adult life in New York City before boomeranging back to Pittsburgh for eleven years. In 2014, she and her spouse moved to Charlotte, NC, where Paula teaches fiction writing at UNC Charlotte and is an instructor at Charlotte Center for the Literary Arts. She is a member of the Historical Novel Society, the Paper Lantern Writers collective, and Sisters in Crime.