About the creator and host of the Copper Island Podcast

Hi there! My name is Melissa Chichester, a third-generation Finnish American and third-generation Italian American from the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan. Raised in Chassell, I spent a considerable amount of time in Laurium and Big Traverse with my grandparents, who shaped my love of copper mining history.

I have an MFA in creative writing from Minnesota State University and am a professional copywriter. I also serve as a part-time faculty member at Delta College in the Great Lakes Bay Region. My work has appeared in Old Northwest Review, Welter, and Animal Wellness Magazine, and I am the author of I Am Safe Here: A New Start for Scout and Lay Down on the Good Earth: Poetry and Prose. Currently, I am editing a full-length fictional manuscript about the 1913 Calumet and Hecla copper strike.