Patrick Friesen writes poetry, drama, songs, and text for dance and music. Friesen has published more than a dozen books of poetry. He has also written two full-length plays, staged at various theatres in Canada. Friesen was short-listed for the Governor General’s Award for poetry in 1997 and for the Dorothy Livesay Award in 1998, and again in 2003. In 1994 his book Blasphemer’s Wheel (Turnstone Press) won the McNally Robinson Book of the Year award in Manitoba, and in 2017 his co-translation, with Per Brask, of Ulrikka Gernes’ Frayed Opus for Strings & Wind, was short-listed for the Griffin Poetry Award. Friesen now lives on Vancouver Island.