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Kim van Alkemade

Kim van Alkemade was born in New York City and spent her childhood in suburban New Jersey. Her late father, an immigrant from the Netherlands, met her mother, a descendant of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, in the Empire State Building. She attended college in Wisconsin, earning a doctorate in English from UW-Milwaukee. She is a professor at Shippensburg University where she teaches writing, and lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Her creative nonfiction essays have been published in literary journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, So To Speak, and Cut Bank.

Genres: Historical

New and upcoming books

October 2026

The Upstate Dispatch

Novels

   Orphan #8 (2015)
   Bachelor Girl (2018)
   Counting Lost Stars (2023)
   The Upstate Dispatch (2026)

Kim van Alkemade recommends

Merry (2025)
Susan Breen
"All the joy and magic of a Hallmark holiday tale with the added depth and urgency of a modern family novel. Rare book dealer Merry Bingham is determined to fix her fractious family by taking them all to London for the best Christmas ever, even as she grapples with her own guilt and faces an uncertain diagnosis. This fresh and clever reimagining of Dickens's A Christmas Carol drew me in with its astute and empathetic exploration of the complex family dynamics at play between adult children and their imperfect parents."

The Jazz Club Spy (2023)
Roberta Rich
"A wonderfully immersive and utterly delightful novel that beautifully evokes the world of Jazz Age New York City. You'll fall in love with Giddy Brodsky, an ambitious immigrant with big ideas and a brave heart. The propulsive plot, while inspired by facts, imaginatively blends history and fiction. Written with authenticity and verve, The Jazz Spy Club is a thrilling romp filled with mystery, political intrigue, and compelling characters. You'll root for Giddy and her indomitable spirit from the first page to the last. I stayed up all night to reach the entirely satisfying conclusion."

Such Good Friends (2023)
Stephen Greco
"A deeply immersive and endlessly fascinating novel grounded in a true story I only thought I knew. Greco constantly surprised me with fresh perspectives and new insights as the story unfolded, seamlessly weaving together fact and fiction... A deeply personal portrait of a friendship between two unique people whose lives encompassed world travel, high society, popular culture, and human frailty."

Monarch Rising (2022)
Harper Glenn
"Monarch Rising creates a world that destabilizes the reader with glimpses of the familiar amidst utterly unique characters and settings. This story defied my predictions and surprised me with twists and turns up to the very last page."

The Jane Austen Society (2020)
Natalie Jenner
"The Jane Austen Society is a joyous novel. Written beautifully from the first sentence to the last, Natalie Jenner casts a spell that will have you falling in love with each of her lovingly-drawn characters, with the charming English village in which the story is set, and with Jane Austen herself. I read it straight through, relishing every word and regretting only that it eventually had to end. With tears still in my eyes from the perfect closing scene, I ran to pull a Jane Austen novel from my bookshelf, eager to remain in the magical world Natalie Jenner conjured. In a time where it is so easy to feel we are all at odds with one another, The Jane Austen Society is a beautiful reminder that connection and care are at the heart of the human experience."

Dragonfly (2019)
Leila Meacham
"Dragonfly is a thrilling spy novel with a tender heart, a plot full of surprising twists, and a rich tapestry of historical detail. Caught up in the complexities of sympathetic characters whose divided loyalties force them to make dangerous choices, I couldn't stop turning the pages."

The Daughter's Tale (2019)
Armando Lucas Correa
"A deftly woven novel of women who find the courage to make impossible choices in a terrible time, of sisters split apart by the cruelties of war, of identities lost and found, of families formed and shattered. Through the stories of unique and sympathetic characters, Correa explores the tension between focusing on the present in order to move forward—and the heartbreaking consequences of forgetting who we are. The Daughter’s Tale continues to live on in my imagination long after I reached its redemptive closing scene."

The Fall of Lisa Bellow (2017)
Susan Perabo
"Breathless... this exhilarating novel shatters your heart then pieces it back together chapter by chapter until the last devastating sentence. In masterful and hypnotic prose, Perabo tells an unforgettable story of resilience as a family struggles to reconnect after their perfect world is torn apart by violence and loss. Psychologically insightful and emotionally engrossing, this is a story that will transform you from the inside out."

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