Writers

Michaela Chiste

Michaela Chiste is a young soprano hailing from Okotoks, Alberta. Originally trained as a stage actor, she spent most of her life studying the dramatic arts and musical theatre before crossing over to the world of classical singing. She completed her Bachelor of Music at the University of Alberta in 2017, under the tutelage of John Tessier. She has performed as a concert soloist and recitalist both internationally and across Canada, and has premiered several pieces, including The Dream, a cantata for soprano and pianoforte (Muskins, 2016), La jugement (Langan, 2019), and Songs of Fracture (Beckett, 2019), which was set to her own poetry. Michaela received praise for her 2019 portrayal of Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème with Mercury Opera. Opera Canada described her performance as “a fine balance of fragility and hopefulness”. Her other roles include Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Principal (.Gabriel), Giannetta (L’elisir d’amore), Frasquita (Carmen), Emmie (Albert Herring), Mimi (City Workers in Love), The Dormouse (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), Jennie Hildebrand (Street Scene), Gustave (Pomme d’Api ), and The Boy (Der Jasager). Michaela is an alumna of Arcady’s Emerging Artist Program and former roster singer for Cowtown Opera. michaelachiste.com

Susan Glickman

Susan Glickman was raised in Montreal and studied and travelled in Europe, Asia, and North America before settling in Toronto where she lives with glass artist Toan Klein. She works as a freelance editor, primarily of academic books, and teaches Creative Writing at Ryerson University and the University of Toronto. She is the author of six collections of poetry from Signal Editions of Véhicule Press, most recently The Smooth Yarrow (2012), two novels The Violin Lover (2006) and The Tale-Teller (2012), the Lunch Bunch trilogy of children’s books, and The Picturesque & the Sublime: A Poetics of the Canadian Landscape (1998).

Lydia Sharpe

Lydia Sharpe has always loved to write poetry. She finds inspiration in her menagerie of farm animals, the interesting people she meets and the natural world. Lydia studied BA English Literature with Creative Writing at Bangor University, Wales and achieved a 1st. She believes that poetry is one of the most truthful and freest forms of writing allowing for a profound level of self-expression and reflection. Lydia is currently studying for a Masters in English Literature, expanding her knowledge of the subject that she loves!

In addition to being a writer, Lydia is a keen athlete. She feels freest when running in the mountains, out in the natural world where there is plenty to inspire the next poem! Lydia’s best achievements so far have been to compete for Team GB in the European Mountain Running Championships in Bulgaria in July 2013 and again at the European Championships in France in 2014, where her team won silver.

Lydia was lucky enough to be amongst one of the few young people to have had their poem selected from a poetry contest back in 2011 by Ronald Beckett, to be performed in the Sick Song Suite. Lydia, an Arcady Emerging Artist in 2013, has been privileged to have been able to continue to write poems for Ronald Beckett, who has put more than 20 of them to music for Arcady’s next Emerging Artists.