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.
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 was shortlisted for the 2016 Griffin Poetry Prize.