Lawrence writer Tessa Gratton works on all their books for multiple years, but they’ve been thinking about their newest work since the 2000s.
“The Mercy Makers” began brewing at the start of the war in Iraq, where their father served. It is the first installment in the New York Times bestselling author’s new epic fantasy trilogy, and it’s set for release Tuesday, June 17.
“It (the Iraq War) was just horrifying on so many levels,” Gratton said. They were grappling with “the long history that the United States has of supporting and participating in various imperialisms and political upheaval in the Middle East.”
They added, “I was thinking about how people in the United States, even when they’re not paying attention to the war, are complicit.”
Gratton untangles these themes of justice, complicity and the greater good in “The Mercy Makers” through the journey of the main character, Iriset, a heretic in a society run by a corrupt empire.
When the story starts, “she doesn’t really care about justice or what is good for other people,” Gratton said. Yet Iriset’s worldview changes when the empire holds her criminal father under a death sentence, and she infiltrates the ruling family’s palace to free him.
“It’s (the empire is) fundamentally flawed and brutal and oppressive, and that alone is the reason she should give up some of her own needs and think more broadly,” Gratton said.
They didn’t always plan on writing radical literature; Gratton went to school to pursue a career in politics before realizing that “politics is terrible.” Instead, they considered what drew them to a career in instituting social change in the first place.
The answer lay outside of a legislative building: “Reading science fiction and fantasy that asked questions, that challenged me, made me think about justice and love and compassion and empathy,” they said.
Gratton, like many writers, has found that genre fiction is looked down upon in literary and academic circles despite being “very rigorous and meaningful.” This problem is not as persistent in Lawrence, though, which is a beacon of spells, swords and spaceships.
The University of Kansas houses the nationally recognized Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction led by genre specialist Giselle Anatol. A host of esteemed genre fiction authors call Lawrence and Kansas City their home, including Megan Bannen, Sarah Henning, R.B. Lemberg, Britney S. Lewis, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Kij Johnson, Silvia Park and many more.
“The writing community (in Lawrence) itself is so enthusiastic,” Gratton said.
They first lived in Lawrence in the early 2000s while pursuing their undergraduate degree before moving to Ohio. About 20 years ago, they and their wife, fellow author Natalie C. Parker, chose to come back. Gratton said they would not have considered returning if not for the thriving queer community.
“I loved going to KU … and I liked feeling like I didn’t always have to be in the closet,” Gratton said. “I was pretty confident that we would eventually get to a place where we felt like we could hold hands in public when we’re walking down Mass Street.”
A selection of Tessa Gratton’s local author recommendations
• “The Devouring Wolf” by Natalie C. Parker: The first in a queer middle grade series that takes place around Lawrence
• The Birdverse series by R.B. Lemberg: A queer speculative fantasy universe with a diverse cultural-linguistic focus, including “The Four Profound Weaves,” “The Unbalancing,” “Geometries of Belonging,” and “Yoke of Stars”
• “The Bloody and the Damned” by Becca Coffindaffer: A queer, dystopic-fantasy novel to be released April 2026
Today, both Gratton and Parker write books that are queer to the bone. Early in drafting “The Mercy Makers,” Gratton began considering empire’s relationship to queer identity.
“On a fundamental level, the … societies (in the book) are queer, and differently queer from our western imperialist power-queer relationship,” they said.
Not to mention, the book is rife with queer characters living out their identities. “There’s lots of cool magic, lots of sex,” as Gratton put it.
In this era of book banning, they emphasized the need for local readers to support marginalized authors telling radical stories. They encouraged Lawrencians to preorder titles, buy from independent bookstores and check out titles from the library.
A signed copy of “The Mercy Makers” with a hand-printed broadside is available for preorder.
Stay on the lookout for Gratton’s other upcoming projects — including a new “Star Wars” book and a collaboration with the Authors Against Book Bans Read with Pride campaign — by following them on Instagram, @tessa.gratton.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), community reporter, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at wulfe@lawrencekstimes.com.
Read their complete bio here. Read their work for the Times here.
