Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada
About Patrick Friesen
- Patrick Frank Friesen (born 5 July 1946) is a Canadian author.
- He has written many works, from poetry to stage plays.
- He began his works in 1970, writing books of poetry.
- This Canadian poet, who was born in Steinbach, Manitoba, studied at the University of Manitoba.
- While there, he received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree and a teaching certificate.
- After being a resident of Winnipeg for thirty years, Friesen now lives in Victoria, BC and is a teacher of creative writing at the University of Victoria.
- Friesen often collaborates with dancers, choreographers, composers and musicians.
- Along with writing poetry, he also writes songs for musicians and texts to Improv Piano.
- Friesen grew up in a small religious community, and comes from a Mennonite background, but he broke away from that small community physically and spiritually at a young age.
- His Mennonite upbringing still influences his work such as, “The Shunning,” which is about the persecution of a Mennonite farmer questioning his religion.
- The winner of Manitoba Book of the Year for his work on “Blasphemer’s Wheel," Friesen was also the runner up in Milton Acorn’s People’s Poetry Awards.
- In a 2004 interview Friesen has noted that, “Being Mennonite in background had all kinds of effects on [his] content.” In 1997, his work, “A Broken Bowl,” was short listed for the Governor General’s Award. Friesen collaborated with Per Brask on the translation from Danish of Ulrikka S.
- Gernes' Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind Instruments, which has been shortlisted for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize.
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