Fonds BF 22 - Dennis Gruending fonds

Dennis Henry Stephen Gruending was born in St. Benedict, Saskatchewan on May 18, 1948. Educated locally and at St. Peter's College, Muenster, Gruending earned a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English from the University of Saskatchewan (1970, 1984) and a Masters in Journalism from Carleton University (1996).

From 1971 to 1989 Gruending worked as a journalist in print, radio and television primarily in Saskatchewan. In this period he also worked as a freelance contributor (Five Nights, Capital Report) radio host (Wheels; CBC Morning Edition), radio producer (Saskatchewan Today), and television reporter (24 Hours) for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Between 1979 and 1981 he also worked for the social action department of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Regina. Gruending toured extensively in Central and South America in the late 1970s and was a member of the 1982 Saskatchewan Trade Union Tour to Nicaragua.

Leaving radio broadcasting to pursue freelance writing interests in 1989, Gruending moved to Ontario where he spent four years as director of information for the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops in the mid-1990s. He settled in Ottawa.

Elected to federal Parliament as the New Democratic Party (NDP) member for Saskatoon-Rosetown-Biggar in a 1999 by-election, Gruending served as NDP critic for International Development and the Environment. He lost his seat in the federal election of 2000 and ran unsuccessfully in 2004.

Gruending maintained ties in Saskatoon and Ottawa. He has held membership in the Association of Canadian Television and Radio Artists (ACTRA); Amnesty International; The Writers' Union of Canada (National Council); the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild; PEN International (English-Canadian Section) and the Committee for Investigative Journalism, Saskatchewan Branch. Gruending received the City of Regina Writers' Award (1980), the Saskatchewan Writers' Guild Award for Non-Fiction (1981) and national awards for farm writing and religious journalism.

Dennis Gruending married Martha Wiebe and has two daughters: Maria and Anna. Currently (2006) Gruending is involved in writing, research and communications planning in Ottawa, Ontario.

Primarily a writer of non-fiction, Gruending has also written poetry and short fiction. He is the author of numerous articles, stories and poems appearing in NeWest Review, The Canadian Forum, New Internationalist, Maclean's, This Magazine and Reader's Digest and has contributed to many anthologies. His books include: Gringo: Poems and Journals from Latin America (Coteau Books, 1983); Emmett Hall: Establishment Radical (Macmillan of Canada, 1985; revised and updated: Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2005); Promises to Keep: A Political Biography of Allan Blakeney (Western Producer Prairie Books, 1990), The Middle of Nowhere: Rediscovering Saskatchewan (Fifth House, 1996); Great Canadian Speeches (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2004); Pulpit and Politics: Competing Religious Ideologies in Canadian Public Life (Kingsley, 2011); and Speeches that Changed Canada (Fitzhenry and Whiteside, 2018).