Applications are currently closed. Check back in early 2026.

Millay House Rockland Writing Residency

Millay House Rockland offers monthlong, juried residencies. Open to writers of any genre—poetry, fiction, nonfiction, plays, or journalism. The residency offers comfortable accommodations in the house where Pulitzer Prize–winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born.

Application Guidelines:

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—Gretel Ehrlich—are not eligible to enter. Staff and volunteers of Millay House Rockland are also not eligible to enter.

  • Applicants must choose October 2025 or July 2026 on their application (or both if they want to be considered for either). 

  • Applicants must submit their resume in a PDF format. 

  • Applicants must submit examples of their work in a PDF format. Prose writers should submit up to 25 pages of a novel, short stories, play, or nonfiction writing, double spaced and formatted in 12-point type. Poets should submit no more than ten pages of poetry with each poem beginning on a new page, formatted in 12-point type. Works may be previously published or in process. Your written samples should not include your name or any contact information. 

  • Applicants must submit a short statement about the project they plan to work on and why they want this residency.

  • Each residency is open to one person only. No group projects will be considered.

  • This is a solo residency: no partners, friends, or spouses may accompany the writer.

  • 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.

Residency Details

This residency offers a month to write. The writer-in-residence will offer one public event; this could be a reading, workshop, or conversation with students or the public. No children, no pets, and no smoking within the house. Applicants must be U.S. citizens and at least 21 years old; they may not be currently enrolled in an educational degree program.

Location & Facilities

The Millay House is located at 198 Broadway in Rockland, Maine, a city that combines a historically significant working waterfront with a flourishing art scene. The duplex, built in 1891, has been recently renovated, with gracious furnishings. The residence provides a living/dining room, fully equipped kitchen, two bedrooms, a study, one and a half baths, a washer and dryer, and off-street parking. Located within easy walking distance of downtown Rockland, one finds an array of art galleries and museums, restaurants and coffee shops, a public library and bookstores, the Harbor Trail, a boatbuilding school, windjammer cruises, and daily ferry service to the islands, as well as a weekly farmers market.