Millay House Rockland Writing Residency Application 2026-27
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The Millay House Rockland Writing Residency is a month-long solo retreat housed in the historic home where Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born. Millay knew the courage and solitude writing requires. This residency honors her bold spirit, offering writers a space to engage deeply with their work while drawing inspiration from the coastal town that was the birthplace of one of America’s most distinctive poetic voices.
Residents receive a $1,200 stipend from our generous partner, the Ellis-Beauregard Foundation.
We welcome writers of all genres to apply. Each resident chosen will be asked to offer one public event while they are in residence: a reading, workshop, or a conversation with writing students and/or the general public.
Finalists will be selected in a blind reading by five members of Maine's literary community. Award-winning poet Dorianne Laux will select the winners.
Application Constraints:
- Applicants must be U.S. citizens, 21 years old or older, and not currently enrolled in an educational program at the time of the residency.
- Relatives, close friends, and current students of the final judge, Dorianne Laux, and the staff and volunteers of Millay House Rockland, are not eligible to enter.
- Applicants must choose October 2026 or July 2027 on their application (or both if they want to be considered for either).
- This is a solo residency: no partners, friends, or spouses may accompany the writer. No group projects will be considered.
What to Submit:
In PDF format, in 12-pt type, please submit the following in three, separate documents:
- your resume, to be read after the judging––will not be seen by the jurors
- a short project statement about the project you plan to work on and why you want this residency, without your name or identifying information, to be read blind by jurors and judge
- a writing sample, without your name or identifying information, to be read blind by the jurors and judge:
- Prose writers should submit up to 25 pages of a novel, short stories, play, or nonfiction writing, double spaced.
- Poets should submit up to 10 pages of poetry with each poem beginning on a new page.
- Works may be previously published or in process.