Brian Brennan (author)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brian Brennan (born October 4, 1943) is a Canadian journalist, broadcaster, musician, and writer who specializes in books about the people and the social history of Western Canada.
Born in Dublin, Ireland, he immigrated to Canada in 1966 and has lived in Calgary, Alberta since 1974. He spent 25 years as a full-time journalist with the Calgary Herald, writing columns and feature stories.
Brennan was a leader in the attempt by the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada to organize a union local and negotiate a first contract with the Calgary Herald. Before and during the eight-month strike by journalists in 1999 and 2000, Brennan was a member of the union’s bargaining committee. When the strike ended in June 2000 with the dissolution of the union, he left to devote himself full-time to writing books and to music.
As a broadcaster, Brennan is heard frequently on the CBC Radio program Daybreak Alberta.
Brennan was short-listed for the 2003 Grant MacEwan Author’s Award, nominated for the Irish Times Literature Prize, 2001, and has received two Western Magazine Awards and the national Hollobon Award for journalism. He was the first winner of the Dave Greber Freelance Writers Award, presented in 2004.
[edit] Bibliography
- Máire Bhuí Ní Laoire: A Poet of Her People. Cork, Ireland: The Collins Press, 2000.
- Building a Province: 60 Alberta Lives. Calgary: Fifth House, 2000.
- Alberta Originals: Stories of Albertans Who Made a Difference. Calgary: Fifth House, 2001.
- Scoundrels and Scallywags: Characters from Alberta’s Past. Calgary: Fifth House, 2002.
- Boondoggles, Bonanzas, and Other Alberta Stories. Calgary: Fifth House, 2003.
- Romancing the Rockies. Calgary: Fifth House, 2005.
- How the West was Written: The Life and Times of James H. Gray. Calgary: Fifth House, 2006.
