Location: Canada
Member Since:
Aug. 01, 2011
Brian Brennan
Biography
Brian is an award-winning and best-selling author of one historical novel and fifteen critically acclaimed narrative non-fiction books about the colourful personalities of Western Canada’s past.
One of his titles, Romancing the Rockies, won him the inaugural Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award and a nomination for the Canadian Rockies Award. Another title, Scoundrels and Scallywags, topped the Canadian best-seller charts for more than 18 months and was short-listed for the prestigious Grant MacEwan Author’s Award.
His latest title is a best-selling novel, The Love of One’s Country. It’s a fictional sequel to two of Brennan’s nonfiction books: Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada and Songs of an Irish Poet: The Mary O’Leary Story.
The Love of One’s Country tells the story of a recent Irish immigrant probing the mysterious disappearance of an ancestor who came to Canada during the famine years of the 1840s. It has earned five-star reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other sites.
Another best-selling title, Brief Encounters: Conversations with Celebrities, is a collection of stories based on interviews he did during his 15 years as an arts and entertainment reporter. These stories have been updated and expanded to take into account events that have occurred since the original interviews were published.
His other books include his memoirs, Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada; the first biography of renowned Canadian historian James H. Gray; and the first biography of the celebrated 19th century Irish folk poet Mary O’Leary, which was nominated for the Irish Times Literary Prize.
A former staff writer with the Calgary Herald, Brian has written freelance articles and columns for magazines and newspapers across the United States and Canada, including the New York Times, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star.
Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, Brian immigrated to Canada in 1966 and settled in Calgary in 1974. Over the course of his varied career he has worked as a golf caddy, lounge waiter, customs officer, nightclub pianist, church organist, radio news announcer, and a featured storyteller on CBC Radio’s Daybreak Alberta – a popular program heard across the province.
As a newspaper and magazine journalist, Brian has written on a variety of topics including politics, business, theatre, contemporary music, medicine, education, and travel. He has served on the national boards of The Writers’ Union of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Canadian Theatre Critics Association.
Brian has won national and regional awards in Canada for his journalism. They include two Western Magazine Awards (Gold Award Alberta, Science and Technology Award), for stories on regeneration of animal brain cells, and the national Hollobon Award for medical writing in Canada, which he won for a magazine feature story on open-heart surgery. His most recent awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Petroleum HIstory Society of Canada and the Features Writing Award (runner-up) from the Professional Writers Association of Canada.
One of his titles, Romancing the Rockies, won him the inaugural Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award and a nomination for the Canadian Rockies Award. Another title, Scoundrels and Scallywags, topped the Canadian best-seller charts for more than 18 months and was short-listed for the prestigious Grant MacEwan Author’s Award.
His latest title is a best-selling novel, The Love of One’s Country. It’s a fictional sequel to two of Brennan’s nonfiction books: Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada and Songs of an Irish Poet: The Mary O’Leary Story.
The Love of One’s Country tells the story of a recent Irish immigrant probing the mysterious disappearance of an ancestor who came to Canada during the famine years of the 1840s. It has earned five-star reviews on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and other sites.
Another best-selling title, Brief Encounters: Conversations with Celebrities, is a collection of stories based on interviews he did during his 15 years as an arts and entertainment reporter. These stories have been updated and expanded to take into account events that have occurred since the original interviews were published.
His other books include his memoirs, Leaving Dublin: Writing My Way from Ireland to Canada; the first biography of renowned Canadian historian James H. Gray; and the first biography of the celebrated 19th century Irish folk poet Mary O’Leary, which was nominated for the Irish Times Literary Prize.
A former staff writer with the Calgary Herald, Brian has written freelance articles and columns for magazines and newspapers across the United States and Canada, including the New York Times, Globe and Mail and Toronto Star.
Born and educated in Dublin, Ireland, Brian immigrated to Canada in 1966 and settled in Calgary in 1974. Over the course of his varied career he has worked as a golf caddy, lounge waiter, customs officer, nightclub pianist, church organist, radio news announcer, and a featured storyteller on CBC Radio’s Daybreak Alberta – a popular program heard across the province.
As a newspaper and magazine journalist, Brian has written on a variety of topics including politics, business, theatre, contemporary music, medicine, education, and travel. He has served on the national boards of The Writers’ Union of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists and the Canadian Theatre Critics Association.
Brian has won national and regional awards in Canada for his journalism. They include two Western Magazine Awards (Gold Award Alberta, Science and Technology Award), for stories on regeneration of animal brain cells, and the national Hollobon Award for medical writing in Canada, which he won for a magazine feature story on open-heart surgery. His most recent awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Petroleum HIstory Society of Canada and the Features Writing Award (runner-up) from the Professional Writers Association of Canada.
Smashwords Interview
Where to find Brian Brennan online
Website: http://brianbrennan.ca
Twitter: @BrianBrennan
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-brennan/12/419/35a
Blog: http://brianbrennan.ca/news-and-views/
Twitter: @BrianBrennan
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/brian-brennan/12/419/35a
Blog: http://brianbrennan.ca/news-and-views/