About
Peter Freeman lives on Salt Spring Island on the west coast of Canada. He writes nonfiction and fiction novels, screen and stage plays, short stories, magazine articles, and poetry.
Peter grew up in what was once the sleepy fishing village of Noosa Heads on the Sunshine Coast, just south of the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. He started his working career first as a cadet surveyor and then as a journeyman fitter and turner before focusing on computer science at the University of Tasmania. Throughout all this, Peter always wrote poetry.
While in Hobart, Peter joined the local rock-climbing club where he later met Max Dorfligger, a carpenter, shipwright, and famous Swiss mountaineer. Peter sailed across the Tasman Sea with Max in the thirty-two-foot sloop, Sunshine, that Max had built to New Zealand, where Peter then spent the next few years driving trains and building his own sailboat, Laiviņa.
Eventually, Peter sailed from New Zealand to Australia and then on to Canada, where he incorporated an Information Technology company producing and selling scientific and business software to universities, governments, and the private sector. Though his life was full, Peter still wrote short stories, novellas, and plays.
In 1984, Peter departed Victoria, British Columbia, to sail his thirty-two-foot sloop, Laiviņa, on a solo, nonstop circumnavigation of the globe, breaking the existing world record with a time of 236 days. His book, Cape Horn Birthday, is an account of this journey. Once his journey was complete, Peter wrote poetry, novels, and plays.
Peter is a masters' athlete who has represented Canada internationally in world championships, competing in Italy, South Africa, Australia, the USA, and Canada, and has won gold, silver, and bronze medals in these competitions in the 100, 200, 400, and 800 metre events. In 2003, at the age of 51, Peter was ranked 11th in the world and 1st in Canada in the 400-metre event for his time in Puerto Rico of 55.10 seconds.
Peter has twice ridden his bicycle across Canada and, at the age of 61, bicycled the 15,400 kilometres around the perimeter of Australia, unsupported, in 79 days, averaging 200 kilometres a day.
His colourful history has given him an endless vault of story ideas to write about, as his publishing experience illustrates:
Awards
• Winner - 2019 The Fieldstone Review's literary prize - “Hidden Message”
• Best Short Story (Shortlist): “In the Waiting Room” – Best of 2018 Adelaide Literary Award
• Best Poem (Finalist): “Last Beating” – Best of 2018 Adelaide Literary Award
Publishing history
• Newspaper:
◦ Around the Harbour
▪ Columns (“Baggy Wrinkle,” “Dear Salty”)
▪ Articles (“Classic Boat Festival,” “The Tall Ships are Alive and Well,” “The Fate of the Maruffa,” “From Lahaina With Love”)
• Magazines:
◦ Pacific Yachting
▪ “Singlehanded ‘Round the World”
• Books:
◦ Nonfiction
▪ Cape Horn Birthday – Seaworthy Publications Inc., Florida – 348 pages
◦ Poetry
▪ Growth: an anthology of fifty poems – Adelaide Books, New York – 124 pages
◦ Collections
▪ Elements: Twelve Stories - Adelaide Books, New York – 382 pages
▪ Alchemy Alive: Twelve Screen and Stage Plays – Ensilwood Publishing – 541 pages
• Individual pieces
◦ “Voice” – Poem
◦ “Hidden Message” – Fiction
Featured Work
Cape Horn Birthday
Cape Horn Birthday documents the extraordinary non-stop round-the-world journey of a lone sailor and his thirty-two-foot sloop. GPS did not exist when Peter Freeman set sail from Victoria, British Columbia, in 1984. Peter navigated the old-fashioned way, with a compass, a sextant, books of tables, and his wits. Along the way, he had to rebuild the self-steering rudder, repair torn sails, and fix broken gear.
Peter encountered a severe lightning storm, snow, and hailstorms as he sailed as close to the Antarctic ice as he dared. Near île Kerguélen in the South Indian Ocean, Laiviņa almost rolled over in a violent storm. While the little sloop was inverted, Peter was under water, helplessly tied to the pushpit rails holding his breath as he waited for the sturdy little craft to right herself.
Along the New Zealand coastline, Peter joined in a race and took line honours for the Overseas Entry Class before crossing the Pacific back to Victoria, British Columbia. Upon arrival, Peter was greeted with the news that he had broken the existing world record.
Other Works
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Elements: Twelve Stories
2021
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Alchemy Alive: Twelve Screen and Stage Plays
2021
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Growth: Poems
2019
Awards and Recognition
- Winner - 2019 The Fieldstone Review's literary prize (University of Saskatchewan).