Past Winners of the Millay House Rockland Writer-in-Residence
Vincent Van Dyke, October 2026 Writer-in-Residence
Crafting essays into this memoir-in-progress, Vincent Van Dyke mixes genre beautifully and engages us fully in a woman's quest to define her sexuality. In Maiden, Mother, Unicorn, Van Dyke offers an honest exploration of being queer and bisexual, conforming to the societal expectations of a heterosexual marriage and motherhood for years, and then summoning the courage to redesign life into a shape that feels most truly her own.
—Dorianne Laux, 2026 Millay House Rockland Writer-in-Residence Judge
Vincent Van Dyke lives in Northern New England with her partner, kids, and standoffish pet hedgehog. Her first book, Maiden, Mother, Unicorn, explores motherhood, queer identity, and the transition to nonmonogamy after a decade of “traditional” marriage.
William Torrey, July 2026 Writer-in-Residence
This talented writer gives us swift, light-footed prose that sweeps us into the collapse and resurgence of four men, ill-equipped to face themselves and their questions of shame and redemption, as well as the necessary ingredients and value of true friendship.
—Gretel Ehrlich, 2025 Millay House Rockland Writer-in-Residence Judge
William Torrey is the author of the forthcoming novella Freedom of Movement (Regal House, 2027). His short stories and essays have appeared widely in magazines such as The Missouri Review and The North American Review. A recipient of fellowships and grants from The Delaware Division of the Arts, the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, he teaches writing at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
Joanna Young, October 2025 Writer-in-Residence
These poems are sharp-shinned, instinctive, deep, and diverse. . . yet spiced with immediate and local detail. The lines are mesmerizing yet piercing and concise. . . There’s a questing mind in these poems, reaching and touching and floundering again within what she calls, “her double helix of loss.”
—Gretel Ehrlich, 2025 Millay House Rockland Writer-in-Residence Judge
With generational roots in Vinalhaven, Maine, poet Joanna Young’s work explores the “infinity" she writes from, the midcoast landscapes that initiate her into a world of beauty, mystery, and healing.
Melissa McKinstry, 2024 Millay House Inaugural Writer-in-Residence
In considering each writer’s engagement with language, and the vitality of the project, my selection process led me to Melissa McKinstry’s application. There are many different strengths displayed here, which is wonderful to see. I found myself valuing most an imaginative engagement with difficulty that pushes a writer to create work energized by what Wallace Stevens called “the pressure of reality.” Her poems find lyrical precision and terrible beauty in the long work of caring for a profoundly disabled child—an almost unknowable boy held in an unblinking gaze and an unfailing heart.
—Mark Doty, 2024 Millay House Rockland Writer-in-Residence Judge
Melissa McKinstry hosts quarterly poetry and jazz events and curates a community Poet Tree in San Diego. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in many journals including Beloit, Adroit, Narrative, Best New Poets 2023 and 2025, and Pushcart Prize L: Best of the Small Presses 2026. An Adroit Djanikian Scholar and the inaugural writer-in-residence at the Millay House Rockland, she currently serves on the Alumni Council for Pacific University’s MFA program and the Board of the Millay House Rockland.
She earned her MFA in poetry at Pacific University. She offers craft talks, workshops, and readings in person and online. She is research, editorial, and production assistant for poet Ellen Bass.