Jonathan Friesen
AUTHOR

Jonathan Friesen

Teen & Young Adult
Tap the gear icon above to manage new release emails.
SHORT BIOGRAPHY: Jonathan Friesen is an author, speaker, and youth writing coach from Mora, Minnesota. His first young adult novel, Jerk, California, received the ALA Schneider Award. When he's not writing, speaking at schools, or teaching, Jonathan loves to travel and hang out with his wife and three kids. Read more at www.JonathanFriesen.com ____________________ FULL BIOGRAPHY: I had the perfect life. I was the grade-school star and the teacher's pet. The world revolved around me and I suspected it always would. If you ask most people about their life, they don't begin with fifth grade. But that was a good year. Illness changed that. I retreated into a shell and escaped into words. Writing a story sucked the pain out of me, at least for a while. That's when I learned to "feel" on paper. I didn't think I'd be an author, I didn't think I'd be much of anything, I was simply writing to survive. Life changed in college. Health returned, the cloud lifted, and I got my teaching license. Being a teacher, and being with those kids healed me. Surrounded by them, I relived periods of time stolen by childhood sickness. I was in my glory. But I couldn't escape storytelling. All those years expressing myself on paper left their mark. While my students worked, I wrote at my desk. JERK, CALIFORNIA, my first book, flowed out of my own "lost years," but hope fills the pages. Writing it was a beautiful thing to experience. I now live on a horse farm with my wife, three children, and a growing number of animals. Our home is on a hill that overlooks a river that snakes through a beautiful valley. We tear along the stream on the 4-wheeler. My three kids race through the pasture and scale the sides of the sand pit; they search for agates and chase wild turkeys that trespass on the gravel road that connects our hill to the rest of the world. I have promised them chickens and horses, but for now they settle for bald eagle and bear. It's a good place to play and write. At night, I walk out and listen to the wind rattle paper-thin bark on our birch trees. I stare at stars nobody else has seen and start a bonfire so bright it chases all the stars away. Then, my clothes full of smoke and my mind filled with ideas, I come inside and write until my fingers get heavy on the keyboard. I love it here.
Read more Read less
Not an Audible member?
From £7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Start your free 30-day trial

Best Sellers

Product list
  • Aquifer cover art

    Regular price: £12.99 or 1 Credit

    Sale price: £12.99 or 1 Credit

    Try for £0.00

Are you an author?

Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.
Visit Amazon Author Central