Gracia Grindal

Gracia Grindal was born in 1943 in Powers Lake, North Dakota to a Lutheran pastor and his wife. Growing up in a Lutheran parsonage in Tioga, and Rugby, ND. she learned the traditions of Lutheran hymnody and music. When she was twelve, the family moved to Salem, Oregon. She graduated from North Salem High School in 1961 and then enrolled at Augsburg College, Minneapolis. After graduating in 1965 with majors in English and History, she spent a year in Norway learning the language of her parents and grandparents. She then returned to attend the University of Arkansas where she received an MFA in poetry and creative writing in 1969. In 1968 she began teaching in the English Department at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. In 1984, she was called to Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota to teach preaching, hymnody, and devotional literature. After her retirement, she has continued writing hymns, translating them from the Scandinavian languages, several collections of sonnets, and biographies of Norwegian American women. Her latest book is a collection of 366 sonnets on the life of Jesus, Jesus the Harmony, Fortress Press 2021.