Kim Van Alkemade

I've written two historical fiction novels Orphan #8 (William Morrow, 2015) and Bachelor Girl (Touchstone, 2018). My creative nonfiction essays have appeared in literary journals including Alaska Quarterly Review, CutBank, and So To Speak. I was born in New York, NY, and earned a BA in English and History from the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and an MA and PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. I currently work as a Professor in the English Department at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania where I teach writing. I live in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

I spent eight years researching and writing Orphan #8. It all began with my interest in the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York, the institution in which my grandfather, Victor Berger, and his brothers, Charlie and Seymour, grew up. My great-­grandmother, Fannie Berger, worked at the orphanage, first as a domestic and later as a counselor. Many of the characters and events in Orphan #8 were inspired by my family history.

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