Bristol was born in Alaska, and named after Bristol Bay, where her parents fished commercially. Later, she was raised in South Central Alaska, splitting time between her family's off-the-grid homestead at Flat Horn Lake, and attending school in Anchorage.She now lives in Portland, Oregon, with her husband, dog, and way too many books.
"""Afterward is a perfectly titrated novel. In this taut, voice-driven, and viciously subversive debut, Bristol Vaudrin proves herself a master of withholding, cleverly navigating the chasm between said and unsaid as she exposes the underside of humanity at its most self-absorbed. A terrific debut!"" -- Sara Lippmann, author of Jerks and Lech ""Bristol Vaudrin's Afterward describes contemporary work and social life in lyrical, almost anthropological, detail, but the suicide attempt that sets the novel in motion suffuses it with dread and forces a reckoning with the way we live now. The combination of emotional intensity and dry humor evokes European writers like Elena Ferrante and Fleur Jaeggy, but the void Vaudrin stares down, and even comes to terms with, is unmistakably American. A powerful meditation on grief that isn't afraid to make you laugh amid the pain."" -- Christian Tebordo, author of Ghost Engine and The Apology"