Yukon who is who

Erling Friis-Baastad (1950 - 2025)

Erling Friis-Baastad was born in Oslo, Norway and grew up in the United States. He emigrated to Toronto in 1969 and moved to the Yukon in 1974. He worked at several jobs but his passion was being a poet. He worked for sixteen years as a copy editor with the Yukon News and mentored younger journalists.¹⁾

Erling edited a book of poetry, Outlaws, published in 1974 by Alive Press Ltd. His collection, The Exile House, was published by Ireland's Salmon Publishing in 2001. His poems have appeared in books and literary journals and anthologies, including The Malahat Review, Grain, Poetry Canada and Canadian Forum. His book Wood Spoken: New and Selected Poems was printed by Harbour Publishing in 2004.