Maddie Martinez
Maddie Martinez is the USA Today bestselling author of The Maiden and Her Monster and the forthcoming novel The Haunting of Lady Death. She has a bachelor's in political science and a master's in international peace and conflict resolution, which greatly inspires her writing. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, you can now find Maddie in New York City, filling her tiny apartment with an unwieldy number of books.
Q: How did the idea for THE MAIDEN AND THE GOLEM come about? What drew you to create a sapphic golem story?
A: A lot of my stories come from a confluence of elements that I had been sitting on waiting for the right moment where they slotted together. With The Maiden and Her Monster, I knew I wanted to write a story about a village’s fear of a monster in the woods and a village girl who forms a relationship with said (hot) monster. I also knew I wanted this to be sapphic. But it wasn’t until I was doing some research on medieval Jewry that the story started to come together! The story of the Golem of Prague actually wasn’t the catalyst for me—I had been thinking first about the collapse of the Catholic Church in medieval Europe and the Protestant Reformation beginning to take shape. I wanted to examine what it means to be in this transitional period and what people are willing to do to maintain their grip on power. It’s only once I started to look into this that I brought in the story of the Golem of Prague and Jewish folklore!
These Sapphic Stories Book Club author profiles are compiled by Founder Aliya Bree Hall. Aliya is a freelance journalist and author who founded the book club in 2021 to uplift sapphic stories and celebrate LGBTQ+ authors. This excerpt has been lifted from an interview Aliya conducted with our March 2026 author. You can read the full Q&A by joining the book club.
