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Kim van Alkemade
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Kim van Alkemade

Goodreads Author


Born
in New York, NY, The United States
Website

Genre
Fiction, Historical Fiction, Gay and Lesbian

Member Since
March 2013


NYTimes bestselling author 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. For many years, she was an English professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. Now a full-time writer, she lives in Saratoga Springs, NY, with her partner, their two rescue dogs, and three feisty backyard chickens.

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Popular Answered Questions

Hi! I just read your book Orphan #8 (finished it about an hour ago actually). I feel the impact of your novel has greatly changed the way I look at people of the LGBTQ+ community who are Jewish. I'm a leader of my school's Gender Sexuality Alliance (GSA). I was wondering if you'd be comfortable sharing your experience as a Jewish LGBTQ+ woman and as an author and how that has impacted you? Thank you so much!
Kim van Alkemade Hi Celeste, thanks so much for reading my novel! I'm not sure my personal experience is all that interesting or useful, but there are so many great re…moreHi Celeste, thanks so much for reading my novel! I'm not sure my personal experience is all that interesting or useful, but there are so many great resources through the American Library Associations LGBT Roundtable I'm sure you can find some great reading for your students. http://www.ala.org/rt/glbtrt
It is really important for me, though, to have LGBT characters in my historical fiction as I think it reclaims a historical space for us that is often invisible since so much was hushed up in the past. I'd also recommend that you check out the book Hidden From History: Reclaiming the Gay and Lesbian Past, it's a fantastic resource.(less)
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Hi Kim, are was there currently research that caused you make this a into a novel- is it a personal experience for you?
Kim van Alkemade Hi Velvet, I wrote an essay for the back of the novel, the PS section, called "True Stories" that really goes in depth in answer to your question. Aft…moreHi Velvet, I wrote an essay for the back of the novel, the PS section, called "True Stories" that really goes in depth in answer to your question. After you read it let me know if you have any other questions!(less)
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Combine Editions

Average rating: 3.73 · 26,498 ratings · 2,791 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors
Orphan Number Eight
3.72 avg rating — 21,405 ratings — published 2015 — 31 editions
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Bachelor Girl
3.65 avg rating — 3,685 ratings — published 2018 — 9 editions
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Counting Lost Stars
4.08 avg rating — 1,408 ratings — published 2023 — 10 editions
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The Upstate Dispatch: A Novel
0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Kim van Alkemade wants to read
Sheepdogs by Elliot Ackerman
Sheepdogs
by Elliot Ackerman (Goodreads Author)
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Whistler by Ann Patchett
Whistler
by Ann Patchett
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I was completely engrossed in this quietly devastating and ultimately uplifting story of a fractured family that finds a way to heal the wounds of the past by revisiting memories of the car crash that changed everything . A wonderful exploration of t ...more
Dec 04, 2025 06:45PM  ·   · see review
Kim van Alkemade finished reading
A Little Less Broken by Marian Schembari
A Little Less Broken: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole
by Marian Schembari (Goodreads Author)
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Dec 04, 2025 06:45PM  ·   ·  preview book
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Whistler by Ann Patchett
Whistler
by Ann Patchett
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Whistler by Ann Patchett
Whistler
by Ann Patchett
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Weyward by Emilia Hart
Weyward
by Emilia Hart (Goodreads Author)
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A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio
A Murder Most Camp
by Nicolas DiDomizio (Goodreads Author)
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Imagine a mystery set at an Adirondack summer camp with all the red herrings of an Agatha Christie infused with Andy Cohen's camp sensibility. A Murder Most Camp is bitchy fun from the very first page. Stick with our annoyingly privileged protagonist ...more
Nov 30, 2025 12:16PM  · 1 like ·   · see review
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Weyward by Emilia Hart
Weyward
by Emilia Hart (Goodreads Author)
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A Murder Most Camp by Nicolas DiDomizio
A Murder Most Camp
by Nicolas DiDomizio (Goodreads Author)
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Imagine a mystery set at an Adirondack summer camp with all the red herrings of an Agatha Christie infused with Andy Cohen's camp sensibility. A Murder Most Camp is bitchy fun from the very first page. Stick with our annoyingly privileged protagonist ...more
Nov 28, 2025 06:17PM  · 1 like ·   · see review
Kim van Alkemade rated a book it was amazing
Intrepid Girls by Amy Erdman Farrell
Intrepid Girls: The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA
by Amy Erdman Farrell
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Nov 24, 2025 03:19PM  · 1 like ·   ·  preview book
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Quotes by Kim van Alkemade  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“I was so used to pretending to be something I wasn't, it shocked me to be seen for what I was.”
― Kim van Alkemade, Orphan Number Eight
tags: crying, kiss, lesbian, lgbtqia, librarian, loneliness, rachel, romance
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“What makes you think I ever got married? Married women work themselves to death, all their money goes to husbands who gamble it away. Why would I ever do that to myself?”
― Kim van Alkemade, Orphan Number Eight
tags: businesswoman, chinese-american, equal-pay, feminism, marriage, marriage-equality, mrs-hong, wig-maker
3 likes
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“Sometimes I ask myself if there’s any limit to the harm people can do to each other.” “No,”
― Kim van Alkemade, Orphan Number Eight
3 likes
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Topics Mentioning This Author

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Book Nook Cafe: What I read October 2015 59 38 Nov 21, 2015 02:46PM  
Reading with Style: This topic has been closed to new comments. FA 2015 RwS Completed Tasks - Fall 2015 1016 104 Nov 30, 2015 09:00PM  
The Seasonal Read...: This topic has been closed to new comments. Fall Challenge 2015: Completed Tasks (DO NOT DELETE POSTS) 3254 600 Nov 30, 2015 09:01PM  
A Million More Pages: POFM November 2015 190 123 Dec 02, 2015 12:37PM  
Book Nook Cafe: Carol's 2015 Reads & Reviews 167 91 Jan 07, 2016 09:37AM  

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