MICHELLE MERLINDT

      At heart I've always been a treasure hunter.  I'm always dreaming of finding something beautiful but rare, something obscure, something neglected, forgotten or unappreciated yet timelessly precious. 

      My treasure hunting enriches a life dominated by two forces.  The first is a slow-burning, quiet form of wanderlust.  I love to travel. The second is my love of literature.  I'm a wildly eclectic reader and I love to write. 

     The treasures I seek in life are intangible.  They are not souvenirs to be squeezed into a suitcase but fleeting moments, breathtaking sights, glimpses into the secrets of foreign lands, fragments of history, custom and culture which once discovered often inspire stories of my own.   

      One of the most notable artistic events for me happened when I had the good fortune to be selected and appear at the 2022 Vancouver Fringe Festival where I  presented six performances of my story The Songbird of Vienna.  Mine was a solo show, conceived, developed, written, designed, directed and performed entirely by myself.  It was also my first time participating in a theatre festival.  The experience was exhausting and electrifying in equal degrees.

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      Other than that, I'm always working on something, whether it is a film script, essay, novel or narrative poem. Some of my smaller creative efforts can be found on the blog page of this website, on Bandcamp (where with any luck I will eventually manage to post a recording of The Songbird of Vienna) and on Instagram.