fiction and creative non-fiction from Brennan Quenneville
"Tell me what democracy looks like," said a young black man. His words, amplified through a megaphone, carried across the intersection to where we stood. "This is what democracy looks like," came the response from the crowd that had flooded each of the four corners of our city's small downtown. We wore masks and stood [...]
We are living in a fraught, historic time and right now it feels nearly impossible to think about anything save the unrest that grips the nation and the onslaught of dangers that beset black Americans and other systemically disenfranchised minorities. As a member of the privileged white middle class, I make a less than compelling [...]
"Liz Lemon isn't funny." That's all it said. One text, lobbed like a grenade into a group text without any pretext. It was incendiary. It started a war. We're still sorting through the carnage. To be clear about which side I stand on, let me say this very clearly: Liz Lemon is very, very funny. [...]
We're five months into a global pandemic and the world is (still) on fire. If you listen closely, above the raucous tumult of daily news briefings and abrasively selfish protestors, you can hear the soft whine of every single person on earth collectively screaming through clenched teeth. We all need a break. We all need [...]
Rocannon's World may not be one of the first dozen Ursula K. Le Guin books that I'd recommend but the novel did birth a legacy that, rather appropriately, stretches through time from the story's 1966 publication through the present day. Needing a means of communication that could bridge the time-dilation gap of faster than light [...]
Like every other card carrying millennial, I was disappointed when HAIM delayed their upcoming third album, the aptly titled Women in Music Pt. III, due to concerns arising from COVID-19. Is there nothing that this novel coronavirus cannot ruin? The pain of this delay is made all the greater by the album's absolutely killer first [...]
This time of year, when the days are growing longer and warmer, my omnipresent-but-oft-latent wanderlust awakens and blooms with the dandelions. Unlike the rebirth of that yellow scourge, I've embraced the urge to travel, especially since Caitlin and I got married in May of 2014. This will be the first year that we've not taken [...]
Until the COVID-19 pandemic altered the entire global landscape, I had planned to post this quick album review on March 19th but then this novel coronavirus began to take over my corner of the world and I had some strong opinions that needed venting. Needless to say, the concert discussed in this review has long [...]
Animal Crossing: New Horizons holds the weird title of being the game of the COVID-19 pandemic. With charming characters, incredibly low stakes and no baseline of gaming skill required, New Horizons is a perfect way for nearly everyone to pass the time during the seemingly endless confinement of social distancing. More than its captivating score [...]
This is exhausting. Just, like, every last bit of it. The emails from coworkers who have lost loved ones, the horror of reading the news each morning to see how high the death toll has climbed, the fear that comes with being caught in a disaster whose endpoint is so completely unknowable, watching friends and [...]
Songs & Stories 