Carmelinda emigrated to Toronto with her parents from Portugal. She obtained a BA and an English MA from the University of Toronto while working full time. She received a certificate in creative writing in 2009 from the University of Toronto. She went on to win Malahat Review’s Open Season Awards, (2013), the Toronto Star’s Short Story contest (2015), was Runner-up for the UofT Magazine Short Story contest, (2015), was long listed in the Fiddlehead’s Journal Short story contest (2017), that story,“Yellow-Watch”, was published in Fiddlehead’s 2017 Fall issue and nominated for the 2018 Journey Prize. Carmelinda participated in the Short Story Conference in Lisbon, 2018 and the story, “Catcher of Souls”, is included in the conference’s anthology. She has had the honour of being asked to be the final judge for the Malahat’s Review 2019 Open Season Award contest. Carmelinda lives in Toronto with her husband.