Emerging Artist Award Winners

Congratulations to one of the 2026 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts Emerging Artist Award recipients, Daphne Charrois!

Daphne Charrois
Actress/Dancer/Singer/Writer

Daphne Charrois is a professional actress, singer-songwriter, dancer and playwright. She is a proud Canadian, bilingual, queer artist, born and raised in the small town of Legal, Alberta.

A graduate of The American Musical and Dramatic Academy in New York City, she earned a certificate in The Musical Theatre Integrated Program. She is the playwright and lyricist of two original musicals, The Spotlight’s Shadow and Fool’s Gold. Her debut single “Don’t Call Me Baby” is streaming worldwide, and both Fool’s Gold and The Spotlight’s Shadow are available as full cast albums.

Daphne is also the Founder and Artistic Director of Light in the Attic Productions, a non-profit by actors, for actors, dedicated to helping performers find their light and tell original stories.

Congratulations to one of the 2026 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts Emerging Artist Award recipients, Saraswoti Lamichhane!

Saraswoti Lamichhane
Writer/Poet

Saraswoti is a poet, translator and editor. Her work is lyrical, evocative and deeply rooted in both Nepali heritage and Canadian experience and has been published internationally. Her debut poetry collection is forthcoming with Mawenzi House Press in June 2026. She is also the co-author of Six Strings: A Joint Anthology of Poems (2011) and co-editor of Kavya: Representative Nepali Poetry in English (2023).

An active literary voice, Saraswoti has been a featured reader at the Edmonton Poetry Festival, AWP Conference, World Poetry Cafe and other venues. She holds an MA in English (Pokhara University) and a Creative Writing Certificate (University of Toronto).