Bernice Friesen
BERNICE FRIESEN was born in Saskatchewan, and the life of her grandmother’s family has been published in The Mulberry Tree by Victor Carl Friesen and Anna Friesen.
She trained as a visual artist first, then a teacher, then turned to writing, taking courses with Elizabeth Brewster, Guy Vanderhaegue Tim Lilburn, and attended the Banff Writing Studio. She has been an art gallery educator, and has taught through Sage Hill Writing Experience, and is a past editor of Rhubarb Magazine.
Her writing has been published in Canada and Europe, and has been included in two League of Canadian Poets winners anthologies, and Best Short Stories, 2002, (Oberon). The title story of her first book, The Seasons Are Horses, won the Vicky Metcalf Award for best young adult short story in Canada. Her book of poetry, Sex, Death, and Naked Men, was described by Tom Shmidt in Prairie Fire Magazine as:
“ferocious feminist verse that chews up the patriarchs of western civilization from Freud to Plato to the Pope and spits them out.”
Her first novel, The Book of Beasts, was shortlisted for the Writers Trust Fiction Prize.
Now and then, she still works with her hands, using materials from leather, to digital, to stone and cement, and her art has been on the covers and in the pages of many magazines and books, including her own.
She has lived in England, New Zealand and makes her home in British Columbia.
Her new novel, Universal Disorder, is just out with Freehand Books.
Go to her website for more.
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