Meet Our Residents
Meet Our Residents
2026
Anna Quercia-Thomas
American Writer
Hispanic American writer and academic, Anna Quercia-Thomas came for a residency to make the time and space to collaborate with writer, Heather Blakey on a coauthored speculative fiction thriller set in an alternate history 1990s France.
www.instagram.com/aquerciathomas
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Heather Blakey
Australian Writer
Heather Blakey is a writer and scholar based in Western Australia. She travelled to Studio Faire to spend time with writer and academic, Anna Quercia-Thomas on a coauthored speculative fiction thriller set in an alternate history 1990s France.
Photo: residents own.
Lisa Downing
American Psychologist
With a continued interest in the application of positive psychology insights to support personal thriving, Lisa Downing is creating a user-friendly workbook that can help college students succeed from the start. She spent some time collaborating with writer, Betsy Campbell Stone on the project.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Betsy Campbell Stone
American/Canadian Writer
Betsy Campbell Stone arrived at Studio Faire with a two-part project goal: To complete the third revision of her novel in progress, and to support her friend and collaborator, Lisa Downing with her project, an applied positive psychology workbook.
Photo by Marc Kallweit.
Zara Hasnani
Pakistani-American Artist
Zara Hasnani spent her residency developing a number of paintings exploring architectural passages and openings, making the connection between interior and exterior spaces. Following the residency she will be training to become a doctor.
zarahasnani.wixsite.com/zara-hasnani
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Daniel Uncapher
American Writer
Having just completed a PhD in Literature & Creative Writing at the University of Utah and about to embark on a new job, Daniel Uncapher’s residency came at the perfect moment. The dedicated time supported the development of his essay collection.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Alan Pocaro
American Artist & Writer
Alan Pocaro’s practice moves fluidly between prose, printmaking, painting and collage. During the residency he worked independently on multiple collages, and collaboratively with Samantha (below) on written works, both responding to the environs of Nérac.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Samantha Tableriou
American Graphic Designer
Samantha Tableriou focuses on creating immersive, story-driven visual experiences through design. Working in part collaboratively with Alan (above) and in part alone, she developed drawings, prose and verse works in response to the local landscape at Studio Faire.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
John Findura
American Writer
John Findura is a poet, adolescent psychotherapist, and teacher of English and Abnormal Psychology in Towaco, New Jersey. He came to France to make space to work on his latest poetry manuscript, which focuses on the fragmentary nature of memory.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Merrill Lee Girardeau
American Writer
Merrill Lee Girardeau is a writer, poet and educator, who travelled to Studio Faire from Birmingham, Alabama for her residency. She’s currently exploring how the surreal can inspire new perspectives and is writing a series of dream poems about redemption.
merrillleegirardeau.wordpress.com
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Elena Kazamia
Greek Writer
Elena Kazamia is an experienced scientist and emerging writer (represented by Jessica Woollard, DHA, London), born and raised in Greece and currently living in San Diego, USA. In residence she focused on her narrative non-fiction on algae and symbiosis.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Kayla Spirito
American Writer
Interspersing poetry within short stories, Kayla Spirito hopes to convey a balance of memory and recollection through both writing techniques. She travelled to France from New England to work on a story collection of ‘conversation pieces’ between two people.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Joanna Emmett
American Writer
Joanna Emmett lives and works in London, where she typically writes short stories about women, grotesquerie, and love. Her residency focused on blending a few experimental essays and prose poems into a cohesive collection.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Tessa Holmes
American Artist & Chef
Tessa Holmes is an American multidisciplinary artist and professional chef who spent her residency working on collage as well as on her new cookbook. She specialises in vegetarian comfort whole-food meals inspired by dishes from around the world.
Photo by Julia Douglas at Studio Faire.
Annemarie Marcinek
Dutch Artist
While developing work for her final year at the Nieuwe Akademie, where she graduates this year, Annemarie Marcinek came to Studio Faire to create collages and assemblages inspired by the local area.
www.instagram.com/anne.marciart
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Ian Marr
Australian Artist
Both an artist and a letter-cutter, Ian Marr travelled to France from his rural farm in Canberra, to develop new works, sketching and painting in plein air in the garden and by the river.
www.instagram.com/ianbrucemarrart
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Sabrina Shie
American Writer
During her residency, Sabrina Shie made focused time to complete her graduate thesis for her Master in Fine Arts – Creative Writing, at the University of Nevada Las Vegas.
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Alexandra Beraldin
Canadian Actor & Puppeteer
Alexandra Beraldin has created a puppet of Rosa Luxemburg, a Marxist theorist and revolutionary. Her residency was dedicated to crafting a one-act play for herself and the puppet.
www.instagram.com/puppetpolitical
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Claire Chambers
British/Irish Writer
Claire Chambers spent her residency deep in her research, drawing on her long-standing fascination with the literature of the Indian subcontinent and the wider Muslim world.
www.york.ac.uk/english/people/claire-chambers
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.
Jan Bitencourt
Brazilian Writer
Jan Bitencourt came to Studio Faire to get away from her daily routine in order to focus on her next novel. She left with more than 20,000 words!
Photo by Colin Usher at Studio Faire.