Member Review
I joined The Writers’ Union of Canada because I am a poet and poets are orphans in our culture. I felt that the Union would provide me with a family of writers and a strong voice for our mutual concerns.
Member Profile
Heather Browne
Living near a lake or river or ocean has been key to living a good life, and writing good work. The Kennebecasis, the Saint John, The Rideau and for a short spell the Burrard Inlet have been home. I recently returned to Fredericton; have happily skated on Killarney Lake.
My favourite writers revere water whether it is Black Water Pond, or the Atlantic as perceived in “The Peninsula”.
My writing began on a wooden pew. I made words in silence and entered into its mystery. That was writing at its finest. To date I’ve added a few ideas on paper: two books of poetry, and a short story collection in 2017 A Moose in the Dark. One story discovers a calf’s skull on a river bottom. Image starts it all.
My early mentors were here in Fredericton. Writers Federation of New Brunswick was key. I learned what being President of WFNB was about. (It was all about having a superior Executive Assistant). Later mentors popped up in creative writing classes I instructed in Kingston, Ontario and in writing groups I love attending. My novel writing is teaching me as much as I can handle about the 20s and 40s N.B.
In my future, my husband and I hope to cruise the Shannon River, and Galway Bay; another homeland calling. We’ll drive that spit of land Seamus Heaney wrote so convincingly about.
