In Times to Come, a third novel from alumnus Kristopher Jansma ’06, has been acquired by Ecco for publication next year.
Pitched as “the story of an 80-year-old as she recounts her childhood in coastal Holland in the final years of Nazi occupation during World War II,” the novel’s premise first came to Jansma during the early days of the COVID pandemic, when he started checking in on his “Oma” (Dutch for “grandmother”). Over the course of those regular chats, she began to share details he’d never known from her memories of childhood. Soon, Jansma found himself deeply invested in her tale, even traveling to The Hague to experience the sights and places she was recollecting. From this obsession, the novel was born.
“In Times to Come sent me on a years-long journey, tracing my family’s roots in Holland during the end of the Second World War,” said Jansma. “I’m excited to share this story of survival, myth, and magic with readers everywhere next year.”
Kristopher Jansma grew up in Lincroft, New Jersey. He received his BA in The Writing Seminars from Johns Hopkins University and an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. He is the author of the critically-acclaimed novels, Why We Came to the City (Viking, 2016) and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, (Viking, 2013). He is the winner of the 2014 Sherwood Anderson Fiction Award and his story “The Samples” is the winner of a 2021 Pushcart Prize. His work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Dutch, Polish, Czech, and Turkish. He writes a column for Electric Literature,and his writing has been published in The New York Times, ZYZZYVA Magazine, The Sun, Prairie Schooner, Chicago Quarterly Review, Slice Magazine, Salon, Real Simple, The Millions, and elsewhere. He is an Associate Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at SUNY New Paltz College. He lives in New York with his wife and children.
