Patrick Friesen

Last updated

Patrick Friesen
Born (1946-07-05) 5 July 1946 (age 77)
Steinbach, Manitoba
OccupationWriter
NationalityCanadian
Alma mater University of Manitoba
Period1970s—present
Genrepoetry, plays, essays
Notable worksThe Shunning, Blasphemer's Wheel, A Broken Bowl
Spouse Eve Joseph

Patrick Frank Friesen (born 5 July 1946) is a Canadian author born in Steinbach, Manitoba, [1] primarily known for his poetry and stage plays beginning in the 1970s.

Contents

Life and career

Friesen was born into a Mennonite family in Steinbach, Manitoba in 1946. As a child growing up in Steinbach, he was friends with Shingoose, who later became a well-known musician, and Wayne Tefs, future author and co-founder of Turnstone Press. [2] [3] After graduating high school at the Steinbach Collegiate Institute, he studied at the University of Manitoba and lived in Winnipeg for thirty years. [4]

In addition to poetry, Friesen has also written songs and collaborated with dancers, choreographers, composers and musicians. His Mennonite upbringing still influences his writing in work such as "The Shunning", which is about the persecution of a Mennonite farmer questioning his religion. Friesen won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award at the Manitoba Book Awards for his work on "Blasphemer's Wheel," and was runner up in Milton Acorn's People's Poetry Awards. In 1997, his work, "A Broken Bowl", was short listed for the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry.

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. [5] Friesen lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and is a teacher of creative writing at the University of Victoria. He is married to poet Eve Joseph. [6]

Bibliography

Audio

Anthologies

Other works and collaborations

Film

Related Research Articles

Di Brandt often stylized as di brandt, is a Canadian poet and scholar from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She became Winnipeg's first Poet Laureate in 2018.

Sandra Louise Birdsell, CM is a Canadian novelist and short story writer of Métis and Mennonite heritage from Morris, Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steinbach, Manitoba</span> City in Manitoba, Canada

Steinbach is the third-largest city in the province of Manitoba, Canada and, with a population of 17,806, the largest community in the Eastman region. The city, located about 58 km (36 mi) southeast of the provincial capital of Winnipeg, is bordered by the Rural Municipality of Hanover to the north, west, and south, and the Rural Municipality of La Broquerie to the east. Steinbach was first settled by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from Ukraine in 1874, whose descendants continue to have a significant presence in the city today. Steinbach is found on the eastern edge of the Canadian Prairies, while Sandilands Provincial Forest is a short distance east of the city.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miriam Toews</span> Canadian writer (born 1964)

Miriam Toews is a Canadian writer and author of nine books, including A Complicated Kindness (2004), All My Puny Sorrows (2014), and Women Talking (2018). She has won a number of literary prizes including the Governor General's Award for Fiction and the Writers' Trust Engel/Findley Award for her body of work. Toews is also a three-time finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a two-time winner of the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altona, Manitoba</span> Town in Manitoba, Canada

Altona is a town in southern Manitoba, Canada, about 100 km south-west of Winnipeg and 158 km north of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The population at the 2021 Census was 4,390 residents. Old Altona was founded in 1880 by Plautdietsch-speaking Mennonites from the Russian Empire. It is surrounded by the Municipality of Rhineland. Much of the surrounding area is devoted to farming and agriculture-based business.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sarah Klassen</span> Canadian writer

Sarah Klassen is a Canadian writer and retired educator living in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Klassen's first volume of poetry, Journey to Yalta, was awarded the Gerald Lampert Memorial Award in 1989. Klassen is the recipient of Canadian Authors Association Award for Poetry and Klassen's novel, The Wittenbergs, was awarded the Margaret McWilliams Award for popular history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Chamber Choir</span>

The Canadian Chamber Choir 's mission is to build community through choral singing. The CCC is a national ensemble that provides a professional choral environment for Canadian singers, conductors and composers, and travels across Canada promoting Canadian choral music. Under the artistic direction of Julia Davids, the CCC convenes in different regions of Canada twice a year, offering concerts and mentoring choral practitioners of all ages and stages.

Wayne Tefs was a Canadian novelist, writer, editor, critic, and anthologist.

The Manitoba Day Award is an award presented yearly, since 2007, by the Association for Manitoba Archives which recognizes those users of archives who have completed an original work of excellence that enhances the archival community and contributes to the understanding and celebration of Manitoba history. These works can be fiction or non-fiction and can be in a variety of media, including audio and film. The deadline for nomination is normally March of each year with the award being granted in May.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Culture of Manitoba</span> Overview of the culture of Manitoba (Canada)

Manitoban culture is a term that encompasses the artistic elements that are representative of Manitoba. Manitoba's culture has been influenced by both traditional and modern Canadian artistic values, as well as some aspects of the cultures of immigrant populations and its American neighbours. In Manitoba, the Minister of Culture, Heritage, Tourism and Sport is the cabinet minister responsible for promoting and, to some extent, financing Manitoba culture. The Manitoba Arts Council is the agency that has been established to provide the processes for arts funding. The Canadian federal government also plays a role by instituting programs and laws regarding culture nationwide. Most of Manitoba's cultural activities take place in its capital and largest city, Winnipeg.

Turnstone Press is a Canadian literary publisher founded in 1976 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the oldest in Manitoba and among the most respected independent publishers in Canada.

Maurice Mierau is an American-Canadian writer of non-fiction and poetry. Born in Bloomington, Indiana, Mierau grew up in Nigeria, Manitoba, Jamaica, Kansas and Saskatchewan and has a Mennonite background. Mierau currently lives with his family in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and was president of the League of Canadian Poets from 2006-2008. Mierau holds an MA in English Literature from the University of Manitoba.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Randolph, Manitoba</span> Place in Manitoba, Canada

Randolph, originally known as Chortitz, is a small community in the Rural Municipality of Hanover, Manitoba, Canada. The community has an estimated population of 70 and is located 1.6 kilometres north of Highway 52 on Provincial Road 206 about 11 kilometres west of Steinbach. Randolph is located within a half kilometre of the longitudinal centre of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neubergthal</span> Unincorporated rural community in Manitoba, Canada

Neubergthal is an unincorporated rural community and a National Historic Site of Canada in the Municipality of Rhineland, Manitoba, Canada. Neubergthal was founded in 1876 as a Mennonite community with Russian Mennonite settlers who came from the Bergthal Colony in Russia. The historic site encompassed six sections of land and the village was laid out in traditional long narrow farmsteads. The village is famous for its traditional Mennonite housebarns and other historic buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royden Loewen</span>

Royden Loewen is a retired Canadian History Professor and Chair in Mennonite Studies at the University of Winnipeg. As a prominent historian in the field of Mennonite history, his book about the Mennonite Communities 1850-1930 is a leading publication about the emigration waves from south Russia to Canada.

katherena vermette is a Canadian writer, who won the Governor General's Award for English-language poetry in 2013 for her collection North End Love Songs. Vermette is of Métis descent and originates from Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was an MFA student in creative writing at the University of British Columbia.

Curtis Jonnie, better known by his stage name Shingoose, was an Ojibwe singer and songwriter from Canada. He played in Roy Buchanan's band during the early part of his career. He also recorded with Bruce Cockburn in his first album, Native Country. Shingoose was inducted into the Manitoba Music Hall of Fame in 2012.

Rosanna Deerchild is a Canadian Cree writer, poet and radio host. She is best known as host of the radio program Unreserved on CBC Radio One, a show that shares the music, cultures, and stories from indigenous people across Canada, from 2014 to 2020. With CBC Radio One, she has hosted two other shows; The (204) and the Weekend Morning Show. She has also appeared on CBC Radio's DNTO. She has been on various other media networks: APTN, Global Television Network, and Native Communications (NCI-FM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Unger</span> Canadian writer

Andrew Unger is a Canadian novelist and satirist. He is the author of the satirical news website The Unger Review, as well as the novel Once Removed and the collection The Best of the Bonnet.

Elmer E. 'Al' Reimer (1927–2015) was a Mennonite writer from Steinbach, Manitoba. Reimer was an important literary critic and writer in the emergence of southern Manitoba Mennonite literature during the 1970s and 80s. Born in Landmark, Manitoba, Reimer grew up in Steinbach and received his PhD at Yale University. He taught English literature at University of Winnipeg for many years.

References

  1. "poet playwright essayist". Patrick Friesen. 24 January 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  2. Feniak, Peter (20 January 2021). "Grammy-nominated musician". The Globe and Mail.
  3. "Steinbach: The Literary City". Andrew Unger. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 3 June 2023.
  4. "Authors – Brick Books". Brickbooks.ca. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  5. "Per Brask and Patrick Friesen | 2016 Shortlist | Awards and Poets". Griffinpoetryprize.com. 8 June 2014. Retrieved 9 July 2016.
  6. "Want to push your writing forward? Griffin Poetry Prize finalist Eve Joseph says to ask yourself, 'So what?'". CBC.ca. Retrieved 3 October 2022.