2021 | Bettina Rolyn

“The first night after the removal, I swung the windows wide open and peered up past the scaffolding. I caught my first glimpse of the half ripe moon, begging me to greet her and harvest her rays. Mars twinkled underneath her, just over Pisces. I know this because of the planet identifier app on my phone, not because I know the real sky. The true heavens were veiled from me for so long I have forgotten the twinkling light of stars, the sweet rush of wind on a spring night, summoning my attention to nature; replaced by polymers, glass, and industrial creativity: byproducts of human genius.“

Excerpt from VEIL, Bettina Rolyn
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I am a US-American writer, linguist and army veteran based in Berlin.

The memoir that I am writing is about beautiful suffering: physical and metaphysical constriction as a path to freedom. My explorations encapsulate subjects such as identity, initiation, the polarities of spiritual and idealistic worlds, and the life of the body.

In Italy as a younger person, I was motivated to consider higher ideals, for the potential of a better world, while learning to appreciate the life of the senses. I returned, interested to experience how place itself carries an impulse, streaming out of the ground like an energy-spring. The residency has allowed me to peel back a few layers of idealism and write about the tension between those and reality.

Bettina’s non-fiction essay ‘Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?’, arising from her ‘fight to flee herself’ reflects on her time at The Museum of Loss and Renewal and her considerations of life and death.

Published in 2022 by The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Bettina’s essay can be read here:
Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?