Susan Brennan

Poet

Narberth, PA
Pennsylvania US

Author's Bio

Susan Brennan is a poet, screenwriter, and activist. Her poems can be found in her chapbooks Blue Sirens (Dancing Girl Press), numinous (Finishing Line Press), and Drunken Oasis (Rattapallax Press) and various publications. She curates poetry programming (WanderWord) at Wilco’s Solid Sound Music Festival, MASS MoCA, and with Parachute Literary Arts in Coney Island. With circus-arts Constellation Moving Company, NYC she co-produced and staged her poem Chromoluminarism about Georges Seurat’s final painting. She has written film scripts, a one million hit plus award winning web-series, pitched film stories, and co-produced a short film, of which have premiered at Austin, Venice and Tribeca Film Festivals, the Reelabilities Film Festival, the World Parkinson Coalition and at MoMA. She's written the children's book An Island of Cherished Things (Rattapallax Press) about toys and recycling which includes Augmented Reality panels.

Writers Retreats: 

Publications & Prizes

Book:
Drunken Oasis (Rattapallax Press, 2011)
Chapbooks:
Blue Sirens (Dancing Girl Press, Chicago, 2017)
,
numinous (Finishing Line Press, 2014)
Journals: ,
Caketrain
,
Calabash
,
Margie
, ,
Pilgrimage
,
Terra Incognita
,
What Rough Beast
Prizes won: 

Lasso second place winner, Charlotte Miller Simon Poetry Contest, 2024
numinous – semi-finalist Tupelo’s First/Second Book Award, 2011
Thinking of West Virginia while in Berlin – finalist, Split This Rock Poetry Contest, 2011
The Revolution Is…, Lying on the Grass – finalist in Winning Writers War Poems, 2011
Gifted Child, Heart Taken Twice, Last Prayer of the Day – finalist in Malahata, 2010
Sweet Demons – manuscript nominated as finalist for POL Poetry Prize, 2008
Speaking in Stars – manuscript nominated as finalist for Anhinga Poetry Prize, 2004; finalist for Winnow Open Book Poetry Award, 2004; semi-finalist for Nightboat Books, 2003
National Federation of Community Broadcaster’s Silver Reel Award for drama, Bruce Bennet Theatre Scholarship 1986, special Shakespeare performance for Derek Jacobi; NYU grant, Center for Teaching Excellence & NYU, Presidential Award, 2003
The Dread Road, by Meridel Le Sueur - winner of the Silver Reel Award for radio drama, Neon Crow, NYC
Panel Presentations:
AWP: The Dynamic Interplay between Healthcare, Healing, & Poetry, organizer and presenting lecture, Chicago, 2004; Poetry’s First Webseries: Verse, A Poetry Murder Mystery, Chicago, 2012
Split This Rock: Yogic Path to Poetry & Conscious Action and Off the Page and Into the Streets, 2008; Yoga as a Personal, Artistic and Political Practice, 2014
Chromoluminarism – A poem staged as a full-length, live theatre production about Georges Seurat’s final painting with circus-arts Constellation Moving Company and projection artist and costume designer, Crytal Thompson, NYC, 2019

More Information

Gives readings: 
Yes
Travels for readings: 
Yes
Identifies as: 
White
Prefers to work with: 
Any
Fluent in: 
English
Born in: 
Ottawa, ON
Canada
Ontario
Raised in: 
Loudonville, NY
New York
Please note: All information in the Directory is provided by the listed writers or their representatives.
Last update: Mar 05, 2025