Chateau d'Orquevaux Writers' Salon

Tabitha Potts interviews Beulah Van Rensburg, who helps run the writers' and artists' residency at the Chateau d'Orquevaux, about its history and aims. We then hear a selection of poets' and writers' works-in-progress.Alison Clarke is a poet, historical fiction and fantasy author, and visual artist. She is the author of M: The Mystical Odyssey of Harriet E. Wilson and Phillis: A Poetry Collection (University of Calgary Press, 2020), a #1 Amazon bestseller, as well as the award-winning YA fantasy series The Sisterhood, for which she won Diversity Magazine's 2016 Writer of the Year. She received the 2020 Fil Fraser award for her contributions to literary and visual art, and was a panellist at Seattle Worldcon 2025. Alison believes that stories can change the world.Buy M: The Mystical Odyssey of Harriet E. Wilson:UK: amzn.eu/d/f1sUgPnUSA: a.co/d/6NqDbomCanada: a.co/d/1i8bo2fEli Schaub: Eli is a fourth year creative writing major at the University of South Dakota, yet has been writing since his sophomore year of high school. He has written poems, plays, and short stories over the years. His goal when he graduates is to become a fantasy author, although he also loves writing stories in different genres and modes.Sophia Bea: @sophiabea.dot on InstagramKarin Hadadan is a three-times author, filmmaker, speaker and teacher, and the author of When Nothing Makes Sense: Finding God in the Gap Between Prayer & Answer. She also runs the PORTAL app and a Substack newsletter. Follow her at @icietnu on Instagram.Michelle Lizet Flores is the author of the chapbook Cuentos from the Swamp, alongside the titled works Invasive Species, Places We Build in the Universe and Carlito the Bat. Follow her at @shellyflowers on Instagram.Anna Maria Manalo is a recipient of the Denis Diderot award as a literary artist in residence at the Chateau d'Orquevaux, and holds a residency at Studio Faire for autumn 2027. She is the first Filipina-American author writing in the supernatural historical suspense genre, and the first to bring a creative nonfiction approach to it. A former screenwriter and therapist, her screenplays Under Tango Road, The Tulpa Effect and Uncharted Darkness have placed as quarterfinalists and top-ten finishers in competitions. Drawing on true accounts of the paranormal gathered across 27 countries, she is the Amazon bestselling author of Haunted Heirlooms and Unholy Structure. She lives in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.Follow Anna Maria at annamariamanaloauthor.com or @TheSinisterArchives on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and Substack. To contribute a true encounter to her blog, email [email protected] Potts is the host of Story Radio and the author of the gothic novel The House of Dust and Shadows (Rowan Prose Publishing), as well as the short story collection A Book of Short Stories (Wish Hounds Press). She holds a creative writing MA from Birkbeck and attended a residency at the Chateau d'Orquevaux, where she began work on her second novel, The Devil's Picture Book, a historical novel set in 1980s Oxford. In this episode, she reads from her work in progress.