For several years, Brian Friesen called his sailboat home. He worked in various Portland-area marinas along the Columbia River, cultivating his reality of gritty community life upon the river. No l...view moreFor several years, Brian Friesen called his sailboat home. He worked in various Portland-area marinas along the Columbia River, cultivating his reality of gritty community life upon the river. No longer muddied up on a sailboat, Brian has shifted his perspective of river life to a home along the Tualatin, outside Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two children. Brian was the recipient of the James Patrick Folinsbee Award for creative writing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada—where he received a Master of Arts degree in English. His stories and essays have appeared in R.KV.R.Y. Literary Journal, The Music Liberation Project, The Portland Spectator, and A Write Around Portland Anthology. Brian has also been active in other realms of storytelling; he produced a poetry radio show for Golden Hours at OPB radio, performed an oral history of a Northwest Native American elder (available at the Oregon Historical Society), and has volunteered at a number of northwestern organizations, including Willamette Writers and Write Around Portland.view less