He writes of the tension rescuers felt waiting for the right moment to pull the woman to safety: “hair on end, please, I thought, don’t jump from this vibrating place. Breen was one of the rescue workers sent to save the young woman, about 20 years old. The book features 75 works, including “The Eighth Circle” and another poem based on his firefighting experience, “A Bridge to Boston,” about the rescue of a woman threatening to jump from a Boston bridge. Copies of the book will be sold, and it is also available at Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick, The Mustard Seed Bookstore in Bath, Print: A Bookstore in Portland and all Sherman’s stores. Breen will read from his book, answer questions and be accompanied by Celtic harpist Alex Bigney. 28 at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. His third and latest book of poems, “Undertow: A Tide Pool of Poems,” came out this month, and a book launch event is planned for Sept. Those included breaking his leg while falling through a trap door during a restaurant fire and permanently damaging his shoulder trying to lug an industrial dumpster from another fire scene. But Breen himself didn’t start pursuing poetry seriously, including studying at Harvard, until about 20 years ago, after injuries forced his retirement from the fire department. He’s always written and found himself often in the company of poets, including Nobel Prize-winner Seamus Heaney, whose poem “Helmet” was inspired by Breen. “We only have limited space to tell our stories.”īreen had always been a poet at heart. “When you write a poem, each and every word is so important,” said Breen, 68, of Brunswick. Intense heat makes it so small” and how the pungent odor “stings the nostrils. In a poem titled “The Eighth Circle,” he wrote of how the body “moves as if Jell-O in our hands. Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic Fiction Prizeįind this author in the New Brunswick public libraries catalogue.Breen, who had served two decades on the Boston Fire Department, decided to write about removing a lifeless body – he’s not sure if it was a man or a woman – from a bed in the aftermath of a fire. When a check arrived & asking if I had other material that I could offer, I was 'over the moon.' Thomas Head Raddall Award was also very exciting – my second highlight. I told no one because I was embarrassed by my nerve. I had sent in a story – my very first entry anywhere – anytime. It was from the Annals of Ste Anne, Quebec. The highlight was a $10.00 sale – my very first sale. What do you consider to be the highlight of your career so far? I have come to know and love New Brunswick through my children whose roots are here. My novel, A Marriage of Masks, is set in Fredericton in the Autumn – the most beautiful time of year in New Brunswick and especially along the Saint John River. I live in a condo overlooking the Saint John River and the beauty of its ever-changing scenery never fails to inspire me. NB – especially Fredericton, provided me with excellent libraries – University and City – as well as an easily accessible Archives. Teaching here allowed me an amount of time – summer holidays – to put towards my writing. New Brunswick provided me with the opportunity to write my novels. How has New Brunswick influenced your work? I taught Scientific Writing to the Forestry students at UNB for almost twenty years.

I taught in the public schools of New Brunswick, eventually earning a Master’s degree in English Education from Maine, USA and a doctorate in English Education from Boston University. He returned to UNB to finish his studies in Engineering. Moved to New Brunswick after my marriage to Walter J.

Brunswick maine inspireme