Kathleen Watt

LONG AGO I took a scattershot at life and I've been catching up to my marks ever since.

Once an illustrator, I became a professional opera singer in New York (why not?). I enjoyed the privilege of singing some of the world's greatest music as a principal soloist, and for a few seasons with the extra chorus of The Metropolitan Opera Company.

I was still peddling high C's when cancer settled in behind my cheekbone. So began my greatest and least anticipated adventure, the subject of my new memoir:

REARRANGED | An Opera Singer's Facial Cancer and A Life Transposed

As a feature writer with a niche in performing arts, I discovered another perfectly good voice. Now I try to bring a wide-angle lens to everything I write—arts, news, culture—and the glorious human parade, as always.