Saraswoti Lamichhane, Award-Winning Poet Explores Home, Migration and Identity

When Saraswoti Lamichhane migrated to Canada from Nepal 15 years ago—first to Toronto, then St. Albert—she sought connections in her new home.

Lamichhane volunteered, explored, and got involved in the community. She found ways of embracing the city, and it’s embraced her back: Lamichhane was one of the recipients of the Emerging Artist Award at this year’s St. Albert Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts, in recognition of her work as a writer and poet.

“I've always loved this notion that belonging is within us. I feel that I belong here," she says. “But then receiving the Mayor's Award was almost like the place answering back to you: Yes, we see you. You are here. … it was such an honour.”

Lamichhane’s the co-author of Six Strings: A Joint Anthology of Poems, and her words have appeared in anthologies across the world. Most recently, her acclaimed debut poetry collection, Karaikhola Flows, arrived this summer, offering a lyrical exploration of her two homes, Nepal and Canada, and her journey between them.

Writing has always been in Lamichhane’s life: she grew up in rural Nepal, where communities were isolated, but books and education were an opportunity to expand her horizons across the world. At a time when education was gendered there, she was made an ambassador by her school to visit families and advocate for girls’ education, and notes she could see the impact that sharing stories had on people.

“I started bringing these books about different cultures with me, and I would share the stories with them, and they always listened to it so wholeheartedly,” she recalls. “So there was always that beauty of sharing the stories across culture, across places. Migrating from Nepal, moving to Canada, I brought stories with me. And when I share them here—even if I could be talking about what moving continents does to people—there's always a sense of resonance.”

And that resonance can appear in the most unlikely of places, Lamichhane notes.

“I was putting together a photo project, taking pictures of old abandoned barns and stuff like that  outside of St. Albert,” she recalls. “This lady, when she allowed me to photograph her barn, she really welcomed me, and she wanted me to share my stories with her. It turns out her grandparents migrated from England back over 100 years ago.

“The love, the curiosity, the questions she was asking [like] what it was like to migrate from Nepal, getting on that plane for over 30 hours and being in a place that I did not even know a single human being—I felt like despite the language, culture, the continent, she could see in my journey her grandparents. Even through the generations and time, these stories could resonate and meet 100 years later.”

More information about Lamichhane’s work, and the other award recipients of the 2026 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts, can be found at stalbert.ca/exp/arts-culture/mayors-celebration/.

Article written by Paul Blinov

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