When bestselling author Pam Jenoff decided it was time to put down local roots, she wanted to recreate the South Jersey community she remembered from her early years.
Jenoff first came to Haddonfield in 2008, followed later by Cherry Hill in 2010, where she and her family remain rooted.
Her local ties run even deeper. Her father’s family was from Atlantic City, where her grandparents and great-grandparents owned small hotels and restaurants at the Jersey Shore in the 1930s and 1940s.
Then newly married, Jenoff and her husband, Phillip, who is from Lancaster, were looking for a small-town feel, a close-knit community, and easy access to family, friends, and work, similar to her upbringing in Marlton. They found it in South Jersey.
The author of 14 novels, including her upcoming The Society of Forgotten Wives, scheduled for publication February 2, 2027, has become a familiar presence around Haddonfield.
After teaching law students at Rutgers University, she can often be found running errands along Kings Highway, enjoying the walkable downtown and parks, or taking advantage of the convenient PATCO access to Philadelphia.
Most of all, she appreciates the community. Haddonfield, she says, has all the “wonderful hometown feelings” of the South Jersey town where she grew up.
For bestselling author Pam Jenoff, South Jersey offers the hometown charm and sense of community she remembers from childhood, providing a place to raise her family while building an internationally recognized writing career.
“We really do have everything here. It’s easy to get around, and so many of my friends who live in the city come here to enjoy the shops, the festivals, and other events,” Jenoff says. “We have all the amenities and opportunities.”
Book Lovers Forge a Strong Friendship
One of Jenoff’s favorite local destinations is Inkwood Books, the independent bookstore owned by Julie Beddingfield.
“When her shop opened in 2015, I went to talk to her and said, ‘Hey, I want to launch my books with you,’ ” Jenoff recalls. “Her opening an indie bookstore in the area was a gamechanger for readers and authors.”
Beddingfield was working as an attorney and considering a career change when she turned to her sister, who owned the original Inkwood Books in Tampa. Combining her love of books with her affection for the Haddonfield community, she opened the local shop.
“Pam was the first author to come into the store nearly 12 years ago and told me she loved that we are here, and asked me if she could host an event here,” Beddingfield says. “The event was for The Orphan’s Tale, her first New York Times bestseller.”
Inkwood Books plans to host Jenoff’s launch on Sunday, January 31, 2027, at 3 p.m. to celebrate The Society of Forgotten Wives. Inspired by true events and her family history, and set in 1919, the novel tells a sweeping story of missing husbands, buried secrets, and women coming together to reclaim their power.
More than 3 million copies of Jenoff’s novels have been sold worldwide, and they have been translated into 24 languages.
Beddingfield especially appreciates how approachable Jenoff remains, despite her extraordinary success. “Pam is so down-to-earth. She is just a regular person, and often she will swing by to sign books or have a chat,” she says.
“I also love that her books are beautiful, accessible, and well-written. I appreciate that she has all of these independent female characters. Pam finds a nugget and takes a true origin story within a historic context that inspires the rest of it.”
That fascination with history began long before Jenoff became a bestselling novelist.
Diplomatic Career Spurs a Love of Historical Fiction
Thirty years ago, a diplomatic assignment to Krakow, Poland, transformed Jenoff’s life. Fresh out of graduate school and after a stint as special assistant to the Secretary of the U.S. Army at the Pentagon, she joined the State Department as a consular officer shortly after Poland emerged from decades of communism.
Beyond passports and visas, she became immersed in the country’s painful post-World War II history, including Holocaust remembrance, anti-Semitism, and property restitution.
Far from home, Jenoff became part of Krakow’s small Jewish community, where Holocaust survivors welcomed her into their homes and shared deeply personal stories. Those experiences continue to shape her work.
Research is easier today than when Jenoff began writing, thanks to online archives, newspapers, memoirs, maps, and photographs. But the emotional inspiration remains rooted in her years in Poland.
“For me, the inspiration always comes from those years I spent living among the survivors. I consider the books love stories to the people who lived through the most tragic and important era.”
A Return to Poland
In the summer of 2026, Jenoff returned to Poland with one of her 16-year-old twin daughters, who is deeply involved in Jewish culture and history. It was Jenoff’s first visit to Central Europe since her diplomatic service began in 1996. She is also the mother of a 17-year-old son.
“It was a wonderful reunion of old world and new world,” she says.
The return was also bittersweet. Many of the survivors Jenoff had grown extremely close to had passed away. One of her first acts was visiting the Jewish cemetery in Krakow to pay her respects.
She also took her daughter to Auschwitz so she could experience the historic site firsthand.
“My visit evoked memories of my parents coming to visit me in Poland when we spent a whole day touring Auschwitz, and then we went to the synagogue for Shabbat,” she recalls.
“They pulled my father in so they had enough men for the minyan prayer service. The community was so small at that point, so it reinforced that every person counted. It was one of the few times I saw my father cry – once when my mom was sick and the other when we visited the Remuh Synagogue in Krakow.”
A Beloved Rutgers Law Professor
Back home in South Jersey, Jenoff has another role: lawyer and longtime Rutgers professor.
She has been at Rutgers-Camden for 17 years, and is now an associate professor of law. She continues to relish working with students and helping them navigate their own journeys. Jenoff has taught seven different courses at Rutgers, most often Legal Analysis, Writing and Research, and Professional Responsibility, as well as Employment Discrimination and Evidence.
“Our students are super hardworking and unentitled, and I love helping them get where they’re going,” she says.
“None of that has changed through the years. Our students have been through a lot — COVID-19, Hurricane Sandy, family milestones and tragedies, and much more. All of the good and bad. What they really can do, and what we support them in doing, is like keeping their shoulders to the wind in bad times as well as good.”
After earning her law degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Jenoff took a writing course at Temple University, which she credits with helping to launch her fiction writing career. Despite plenty of rejection, she persevered. “I use my past rejections to remind myself I can overcome new challenges,” Jenoff explained.
Connecting with Her Readers
Jenoff treasures the connections she has made with readers over the past two decades through author events and social media. “It’s not just about buying a book; I’ve built relationships with readers who have become friends and friends who have become like family.”
She sees those relationships as an ongoing story. “It’s like we’ve gone through chapters of our lives together,” Jenoff says. “And knowing that people are out there, that they’re reading, that’s what sustains me when I get up at 4:30 in the morning, wondering, ‘Why am I doing this?’ ”
Her readers, she says, are there for her during the highs and lows. “It’s remembering those people, whether it’s someone at an event or someone who has written to me,” says Jenoff. “I’ve had jam-packed events, but I’ve also had book signings where nobody showed up. So, I never take my readers for granted!”
That appreciation for community — whether found in a Haddonfield bookstore, a South Jersey neighborhood, a university classroom, or among readers around the world — may be one of the most enduring chapters in Jenoff’s remarkable story.
For more information on Pam Jenoff, go to https://pamjenoff.com/
