Kristen Roedel

On Becoming “Homeless”

Photograph of a dark window, which overlooks a very green and very rainy lawn. Between the two windows, a tall tree is obscured.

Last night, I said goodbye to my childhood home forever. Ever since I began teaching diasporic world literatures, I’ve been toying with the concept of “home.” I asked my students–a diverse bunch from all around the world–how they would define home. In attempts to get them to think more deeply, I told them how IContinue reading “On Becoming “Homeless””

Un-Becoming a People Pleaser

Photograph of a woman standing in the middle of an overgrown, dried out field. She holds a black umbrella over her head, wears a black rimmed hat, a black trench coat, and black boots. She holds a black briefcase. The sky is dark and gloomy.

I’ve lived nearly 32 years in service to others. Taught to “do the right thing,” to “be the bigger person,” to do what everyone else had done before me, and to “wait my turn” to live the way I wanted to, you can’t even begin imagine how angry I was–am–when I realized that my innate desire to help others and my chronic aversion to conflict had not only been used for others’ sole benefit but in order to keep me “in my place.”

On Becoming Me (An Intro)

“The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering. I too am not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,I sound my barbaric yawp over the roofs of the world.” –Walt Whitman, Song of Myself, 52 I already know I’ll regret setting all down in writing, attached toContinue reading “On Becoming Me (An Intro)”

DEATH RATTLE: Chapter 1

An image of a cemetery. In the foreground is an empty weathered wooden chair. Behind the chair is a headstone with a flowering plant in front of it. The grass is sparse.

Dear readers and friends, Today is a big day! Please join me in celebrating the publication of DEATH RATTLE: Chapter 1 in The Writing Disorder, an online literary journal! This excerpt is especially important to me because it is the oldest section of my novel–it pays tribute to the short story that DEATH RATTLE wasContinue reading “DEATH RATTLE: Chapter 1”

Death Rattle

A photo of a cemetery. In the foreground are three headstones reading "Howell" and two reading "De Beauchamp." Two tall trees stand in the background, blocking the light of a setting sun.

Mortician Neil Aldridge is used to grief, but he struggles to comfort his wife, Anna, who’s reeling from multiple miscarriages. Teaching elementary school art has paid for their Long Island home and fertility treatments, but it has transformed what Anna once loved (children and art) into a mockery of her existence. When their dreams ofContinue reading “Death Rattle”

All Publications

A close-up photograph of dusty red roses bejeweled in dew droplets.

DEATH RATTLE: Chapter 1 (DEATH RATTLE excerpt) The Writing Disorder September 22, 2020 Read here. “NEIL ALDRIDGE, SR.” (DEATH RATTLE excerpt) Litbreak Magazine June 22, 2020 Read here. “ESCAPES: A Literary Autobiography” (nonfiction) Litbreak Magazine June 22, 2020 Read here.

Tag Archives: Kristen Roedel

On Becoming “Homeless”

Like this:

Un-Becoming a People Pleaser

Like this:

On Becoming Me (An Intro)

Like this:

DEATH RATTLE: Chapter 1

Like this:

Death Rattle

Like this:

All Publications

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: