Food For Other Thoughts

Sean Brennan is a non-fiction/fiction writer and former restaurant consultant from a seaside community on the coast of Maryland. He spent the majority of his teenage years in a small, rural community in Georgia, during which he travelled frequently to Atlanta and Milledgeville for readings, concerts and escape. In addition to the music of the Indigo Girls, the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Flannery O' Conner, Oscar Wild and Truman Capote influenced him greatly. He also credits Maya Angelou and her poem "Caged Bird" for helping him to survive life in the closet.

After high school, Sean moved to New York to study acting at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, making two major discoveries during this time of exploration. First, his passion for the written word far exceeded his passion for being on stage. And second, his years of spending summers working at his family's seafood restaurant would provide his livelihood, as it had for countless artists before him.

Sean embarked on a new journey of self discovery attempting to live the life of the poet. Performing his work at open mic nights at the café No Bar and the Nuyorican Poets café. These open mic events lead to his first featured readings at the Knitting Factory, Red Door and Rhythm Vanguard Poetry Jam.

Sean was invited to be a part of several special events during the New York Gay Games and Cultural Festival. Appearing on stage with Quentin Crisp, Michael Lassell, Richard Tayson and Susan Sherman reading a selection of his poems at the venue Papi Luis including the well received "Love Story" and "Good Bye." He was also to appear with his hero Paul Monette at another event, however, taking ill Monette was unable to make it to New York and devastating Sean and the GLBT community passed away due to AIDS related complications a short time after.

Sean likes to say his "muse" visited him one snowy afternoon while he was working as a waiter at Teacher's Too a former Upper West Side eatery.
"We had just had a blizzard and the restaurant was deserted. So I sat in the front window with a cup of tea and started working on a short story I had titled "The Round Table" about this group of misfits that worked in a restaurant. The title came from the large round table in which they all ate their family meal and discussed the events of their lives." He continued, "Flushing out these characters, composites of all the people I had encountered from my earliest days at my family's restaurant. Turned out to be the first thing I had ever written that I felt completely connected to. What's that old missive, write what you know, well I had found something I knew a great deal about that I love, It was like the three generations of my family that raised their kids from working in the food and beverage industry had spoken to me. I suddenly knew I would be working in and writing about my unique experiences regarding food and service the rest of my life

In 2010 after being diagnosed with clinical depression and later re-diagnosed with bipolar disorder he made the decision to alter the course of his life by incorporating his earlier two passions food and service into forming Brain Food Garden Project. (www.brainfoodgp.org) It is his hope that Brain Food Garden Project will start a relevant dialogue on how the role of food and nutrition affects mental hygiene.

Sean completed a novella titled Falling Sky in 2013 and is currently shopping the manuscript to agents while also considering the self publishing market.


I have set up this tumblr in association with my twitter account @SBrennanWriter and my personal facebook page Sean Brennan. I wanted a forum where I could write about anything and everything I wanted to put my voice too.