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I'm a long-time journalist, having written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Chicago Sun-Times, The Dallas Morning News, Slate, Salon, The Huffington Post,
Child, Medium, Elle, D Magazine, Creators Syndicate and numerous other publications. I began researching an incident in my family's past--the mysterious death of my grandparents' newborn--intending to write a memoir. But with so few available sources and records, I got only so far. So, I turned the story into fiction, and At the Seams is the result.
My short stories have appeared in Folio, The Woven Tale Press, The Barcelona Review, The Concrete Desert Review, Doubleback Review, Brilliant Flash Fiction, Round Table Literary Journal, The MacGuffin and Book of Matches.
I began my career as a television reporter in Biloxi, MS and have held assorted magazine editorships in New York and Dallas. I graduated from Brown University and Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and was selected to attend the Kenyon Review Writers Workshop. A native New Yorker, I live near Philadelphia and have two daughters.
Reviewed by Lynda Faye Schmidt for Readers' Favorite
At the Seams by Pamela Gwyn Kripke is a story about family secrets. Told from the main character's perspective, Kate Nichols, it begins with an impactful life-altering scene. Kate is eight years old when she learns from her mother that she’d had an uncle who died in a hospital four days after his birth in mysterious circumstances, a secret that will haunt her for the rest of her life. Interspersed among everyday events, like attending classes at Miss Kellerman’s school of ballet and the fiasco of Changing the Desk Day, are the tumultuous emotions of coming of age and tensions that develop between Kate’s parents. Anxious and curious, Kate struggles to let go of the past, obsessed with the story of the baby who died. Her search culminates in a satisfying ending that hits the sweet spot between feelings of closure and lingering questions.
I liked how the title of this book hints at the unraveling of family secrets while paying homage to the lineage of tailors that Kate Nichols is born into. Pamela Kripke writes effective descriptions that had me picturing every scene in vivid detail. Masterfully utilizing the craft of showing, not telling, I was pulled into the characters' lives by the author and resonated with the complex interweaving of their relationships. Jealousy, insecurity, misunderstanding, unrealistic expectations, and the inability to accept one another and their differences are described with insight and perception. If you like character-driven stories about family ties that bind, blind, and undo us, you’ll enjoy reading At the Seams.
