By Danielle Bettendorf, Living and Arts Editor
Historical author Kim van Alkemade visited Susquehanna as the most recent guest of the Seavey Reading Series on Oct. 9 in Isaacs Auditorium.
Senior Savanna Carlson introduced van Alkemade at the reading, saying, “Van Alkemade pulled me into an authentic reconstruction of the 1920s onwards that won me over before the end of the first chapter.”
“She has the rare talent of being able to start from the smallest of points and expand it into a story both engrossing and heartwrenching,” Carlson continued. “Her characters dream, struggle, make choices … but most importantly learn.”
Van Alkemade was invited to campus by Associate Professor of Creative Writing Catherine Zobal Dent and read from her most recent work, “Bachelor Girl,” which was released earlier this year.
Dent recommended van Alkemade “pick something with its own narrative” to read.
“Kim does a lot of worldbuilding to bring readers into the Jazz Age,” Dent said.
Van Alkemade’s work also emphasizes LGBT themes and characters.
“My first novel was about a girl who grows up in a Jewish orphanage in New York in the 1920s and she’s gay,” van Alkemade said. “Sometimes people ask, ‘Why? Is it because she’s an orphan? Is it because she had a bad childhood…’ There’s a thousand kids in this orphanage: some of them are just going to be gay.”
Van Alkemade continued to emphasize that her writing is influenced by what she thought previous works lacked.
“It was something that was really important to me: to write the kind of book I wanted to read,” van Alkemade said.
Van Alkemade also noted that she does not pigeonhole the period she writes for by its stereotypes.
“The 1920s is as diverse and complicated … as any other [era],” van Alkemade said.
In her lecture, van Alkemade also emphasized the power of the reader in interpreting literature.
“I think sometimes we get distracted from just enjoying reading, because it becomes a job and I think that’s too bad,” van Alkemade said.
“There are a lot of things that you can read through a different lens and it doesn’t really matter,” van Alkemade continued. “Can you see … in a way that makes that relevant and fun for you?”
