Upcoming Events
Your Millay: Creative Exploration of an Icon • A 5-Week Poetry Workshop
A 5-Week Poetry Workshop with Jefferson Navicky
Thursdays: April 3rd - May 1st, 4:30 - 7:30 PM
Edna St. Vincent Millay was a firebrand poet. Brilliant, complicated, and beloved, she was born in Rockland in 1892. Grounding ourselves in selections of Millay’s poetry, and drawing from biographical information, letters, and archival materials from the Maine Women Writers Collection, we will immerse ourselves in the world of Millay in an effort to find the ways in which Millay speaks to our own inspirations.
Participants of all avenues and experience levels welcome – poets and nonpoets; fiction and nonfiction writers; Millay enthusiasts, the casually curious, and those interested in the alchemical process of turning literary research into creative output.
The class will include a tour of Millay’s birthplace in Rockland, home of Millay House Rockland, as well as a visit to the Camden Public Library’s Millay collection. Participants will work to write their own multi-discipline responses to Millay. Instructor feedback following each class, and one all-class workshop. Limit 10-12 participants.
*4/3, 4/10, and 5/1 classes @ Rockland Public Library. 4/17@ Camden Public Library & their Millay Collection. 4/24 @ Millay House in Rockland.
Jefferson Navicky is the author of four books, most recently Head of Island Beautification for the Rural Outlands, a finalist for The Big Other Book Award in Fiction, as well as Antique Densities: Modern Parables & Other Experiments in Short Prose, which won the Maine Literary Award for Poetry. He works as the archivist for the Maine Women Writers Collection, is on the Board of Directors at Millay House Rockland and lives in rural midcoast Maine.
Festival Open House at Millay House
Millay House Rockland will again hold an open house during Rockland’s Festival of Lights, Saturday, November 30, from 10 am to 2 pm.
Epistolary Poetry Workshop
As part of the Write ME Epistolary Poetry Project, poet Claire Millikin will lead a free epistolary poetry workshop.
The Postcard: Millikin writes, “In this workshop, we will write postcard prose poems. Real postcards will be provided, and we will use those to jumpstart our prose poems. I will bring Charles Simic’s The World Does Not End to show some models of prose poems.”
Claire Millikin is the author of ten poetry collections, including Magicicada (Unicorn Press 2024), a book that confronts the experience of juvenile solitary confinement through the metaphor of the cicada. Millikin teaches for the University of Maine system, and lives in Owls Head.
This event is FREE.
And if you’re not in the Rockland area, find out more about Write ME: An Epistolary Poetry Project happening all over the state.
Belfast Poet Laureates Reading & Reception
Belfast Poet Laureates past and present kick off the 19th Annual Belfast Poetry Festival with a reception, reading, a performance by poet & dancer JJ Rowan, a special presentation by Bloof Books, and an appearance by upcoming Millay House writer-in-residence Melissa McKinstry.
A 2-Part Ekphrastic Workshop with Melissa McKinstry
Untitled, 1982, Watercolor on paper, 10 1⁄2 x 14 1/8 in.
Collection of the Wyeth Foundation for American Art, M2206 © 2024 Wyeth Foundation for American Art/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY
NOTE: This workshop is in 2 parts, you’ll be signing up to attend both sessions.
This workshop is full, but Melissa will be featured in a Craft Talk about Ekphrastic Poetry hosted by The Poets Corner on ZOOM, Monday, October 21 from 3:00 - 4:30. Cost: $18.
Part I: Ekphrasis: Poets Engaging with Other Arts
Wednesday, October 16, 2-4pm
Ekphrasis was originally an exercise in vivid description. We’ll read from a rich array of contemporary poets who cross “the line” to see what––and how––they discover beyond description. Exploring the special exhibit entitled Andrew Wyeth: 1982 will provide rich source material for our own ekphrastic poems. Mark Doty wrote, “We think that to find ourselves we need turn inward…But ‘I’ is just as much to be found in the world…Say what you see and you experience yourself through your style of seeing and saying.” Choose from a variety of specific approaches to converse with the art and write into something you don’t already know.
Part II: Revision: Craft Elements to Develop a Draft
Wednesday, October 23, 2-4pm
“Revision teaches me how to push beyond the choices that come easily.”
— Traci Brimhall
Seeing a poem anew is a continuation of the writing that begins in our first drafts. This workshop will include a practical discussion of specific craft elements to strengthen and deepen a drafted poem. We’ll talk about detail, compression, making a turn, shape-on-the-page, and titles––strategies applicable to both established and emerging writers. Please bring a draft you began in Part I: Ekphrasis, and a laptop, tablet, or notebook, so we can continue exploring, developing––and writing! At the end of this session, you’ll have the option to share your poem.
Poetry Reading by Robert Carr
This reading is open to the public and will take place in the library’s community room and online via Zoom. Email elewis@rocklandmaine.gov with the subject line “Robert Carr” for Zoom links.
About the poet:
Acclaimed poet and AIDS activist Robert Carr is the author of five poetry collections, and his work has appeared in The Greensboro Review, Lana Turner, and other publications. He is the 2024 Tuscany writer-in-residence with SPOKE, a Boston-based arts advocacy organization.
Finding Guides: A Poetry Workshop with Robert Carr
This free workshop is intended for LGBTQ+ and allied youth, from ages 13 to 22 years old.
“Is there a beast or a plant that’s always called to you; a bird on a branch, a wolf in the snow, a beach rose? Do you think of this being as a guide? A companion? A potential tattoo? In this generative poetry workshop, we’ll choose a creature and, through prompts, start to build a poem.”
Reading by Natalie Goldberg
Natalie Goldberg, best-selling author of Writing Down the Bones, will be giving a reading at the Farnsworth Art Museum in the auditorium.
This event is free. (Admission to the museum after the reading requires an entrance fee.)
This reading is brought to you in partnership with the Farnsworth.
***Sorry, registrations are full for today's in-person reading at the Farnsworth. You can sign up to hear Natalie read on Zoom on The Poets Corner on Thursday, August 15 at 7:00 p.m. by registering at www.thepoetscorner.org/events.***
Poetry Reading featuring Mark Doty & Bruce Willard
Mark Doty, distinguished poet and essayist, will open the Writers-in-Residence program at the Millay House Rockland with a public reading alongside Maine poet Bruce Willard. This event is free.
***Registration is now closed and all seats have been reserved at this time. We will have a waiting list available at the event to fill any seats left by those who registered but could not make it. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee entry for those who did not register.***
READING 5:00-6:30
RECEPTION & BOOK SIGNING 6:30-7:00
About the poets:
Hailed as one of the most accomplished poets in American Poetry, Mark Doty is the author of nine books of poetry, including Deep Lane, Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems, which won the 2008 National Book Award, and My Alexandria, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the T.S. Eliot Prize in the UK. He is also the author of four memoirs: the New York Times-bestselling What Is the Grass, Dog Years, Firebird, and Heaven’s Coast, as well as a book about craft and criticism, The Art of Description: World Into Word. Doty has received two NEA fellowships, Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundation Fellowships, a Lila Wallace/Readers Digest Award, and the Witter Byner Prize.
Bruce Willard lives in Maine and Colorado and has published three collections of poems: Holding Ground, Violent Blues, and In Light of Stars—all published by Four Way Books (NYC). In Light of Stars received an Indie Book Award Prize for Poetry in 2022. In addition to his work as a poet, Willard directs the Blue Raven Poetry Series in Rockland, Maine.
Camden Festival of Poetry
This year's Camden Festival of Poetry features readings by local poets, performances by singer-songwriters, writing workshops, the presentation of the Zimpritch Poet of Promise Award for an outstanding high school poet, a keynote by Pádraig Tuama, and a book fair reception where festival goers can meet poets and publishers.
Registration is free and the festival is open to the public.
Poetry Reading: Arisa White
—New Date—
This reading is open to the public and will take place in the library’s community room and via Zoom. Email elewis@rocklandmaine.gov for Zoom links.
Opening for Arisa are three of Maine’s Poetry Out Loud 2024 state finalists: Charlotte Schatz of Maine Coast Waldorf School, Angelo Giordano of Portland High School, and state runner-up Willow Knowles of Kennebunk High School.
Arisa White is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Colby College; her poetry is widely published. As the creator of the Beautiful Things Project, Arisa curates poetic collaborations that are rooted in Black queer women’s ways of knowing.
Split Open: A Writing Workshop with Arisa White
—New Date—
This workshop is intended for LGBTQ+ and allied youth, from ages 13 to 22 years old.
“How do I artistically enter into something that feels bigger than myself? Writing exercises will offer participants a way to start; to approach topics and subjects that may intimidate them as writers, and find that through embracing one’s self-voice, history, and experiences—as a source of intelligence, we see who we are and what we put forth as distinctive, new, enlarging, and necessary.”
2018 Millay Arts & Poetry Festival
The Millay Arts & Poetry Festival announces plans for a one-day celebration of Maine Poets, featuring more than a dozen established and emerging Maine poets in the Farnsworth Art Museum library, Saturday September 8, 2018.
The program takes place in the museum library starting at 11 am and concluding at 5 pm. A reception with the poets follows at Harbor Square Gallery at 5:30. Both readings and reception are free and open to all. Winners of the Rockland Library Poetry Contest will open the program.
Poets reading from their work include Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum, Former Maine Poet Laureate Betsy Sholl, Rockland Poet Laureate Mary Jane Martin, and Belfast Poet Laureate Tom Moore. Also, Kristen Lindquist, Julia Bouwsma, David Morrison, David Paffhausen, Karin Spitfire, Elizabeth Garber, Mikhu Paul, Carol Dana, Joanna Hynd, Steve Luttrell, and Maine Poetry Out Loud winner Alan Monga. Musical interlude will be performed by composer and musician Malcolm Brooks.
An Open House at the Millay birthplace at 198-200 Broadway in Rockland takes place the same day from 10 am – 4 pm. The public is invited to see progress to date of the restoration of the literary landmark. The final and third stage of the building fundraising campaign is under way.
Millay House Rockland is a non-profit organization that champions poets and the literary arts. It celebrates the legacy of American Poet Edna St. Vincent born in Rockland, Maine on February 22, 1892. She grew up in Camden Maine and went on to win the Pulitzer Poetry Prize in 1923. Central to the mission is rejuvenating her birthplace -- a duplex in the heart of Rockland’s historical district. Join us in the project of preserving history and promoting poetry in Maine.
Edna St. Vincent Millay 126th Birthday Celebration
Join Millay House Rockland for a Jazz Fundraising Party featuring
Steve Lindsey & Dorie Barnes
Saturday, February 24, 2018 at 3:30 PM
Harbor Square Gallery
Admission is free, however donations are gratefully accepted to support the restoration of the poet's birthplace and the annual Millay Arts & Poetry Festival in September.
Farnsworth Art Museum presents Millay Without Borders: 126th Birthday Reading
There isn’t a train I wouldn’t take,
No matter where it’s going.
—Edna St. Vincent Millay, from “Travel”
Celebrate the 126th birthday of Pulitzer Prize poet Edna St. Vincent Millay in Rockland with Maine poets reading the poet’s letters and poems about her travels as well as their own poems. Millay was a “travelin’ woman.” From her girlhood excursions on Penobscot Bay and visits to her father in inland Kingman to her 1913 departure from Camden to New York City, Millay spent much of her life traveling, visiting Albania by horseback and the Orient by steamship, living in England and France, and traveling by train across the country to perform her poems to large, adoring crowds. Wherever she went, however, she always came home again to Steepletop in upstate New York and to her beloved Ragged Island in Casco Bay.
Presented in collaboration with the Millay House Rockland and the UMaine Humanities Center. Reception to follow.
For advance registrations, your name will be held at will-call. Check-in begins in the main lobby a half-hour prior to the event start-time. Please note that 5 minutes prior to sold-out programs, any unclaimed seats will be released.
Cost: $10; $8 Farnsworth members
Millay Arts & Poetry Festival
Join us for multiple performances of poets and poetry, music, art and theater at various venues around downtown Rockland. The weekend will feature The DaPonte String Quartet, The Edna Project, the world premiere of a new stage play with poetry and music, "Vincent" at The Strand, workshops for poets of all ages, poetry slam, open mics, symposiums, keynote speakers, a juried exhibit of Millay inspired artwork at Harbor Square Gallery.
Edna St. Vincent Millay’s 125th Birthday Celebration
February 22, 2017, would be Millay’s 125th birthday, so on Saturday, February 25th, Millay scholar Kathleen Ellis, Maine Poet Laureate Stuart Kestenbaum, the Farnsworth Art Museum, and the Millay House Committee of the Rockland Historical Society are planning to celebrate with birthday cake and poets reading Millay’s poems and their own poems.
Benefit Concert at The Strand
The Edna Project, the musical family of Liz Queler, Seth Farber, and Joey Farber, have set Edna St. Vincent Millay’s poems to music. They gave a concert at the Strand Theatre to benefit the Millay House. Following the concert, there was a reception at Harbor Square Gallery.
Edna St Vincent Millay Lecture & Booksigning
Author Holly Peppe, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s literary executor, presented a lecture on Millay at the Farnsworth Art Museum and followed the sold-out event with a book signing of Selected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. A reception afterward at Harbor Square Gallery launched the Millay House fund raising campaign.