ROCKLAND—As Millay House Rockland continues to make progress in the renovation of the house on Broadway Street. which was the birthplace of renowned poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, one of their newest achievements is teaming up with Portland’s nonprofit writing center, the Telling Room.

Dr. Lisa Westkaemper, the treasurer of Millay House Rockland, said: “The progress on the house is going well. We plan on having the Telling Room set up a presence here in one of the rooms in late August, or early September, and hoping by then, we’ll have a space for them renovated enough to operate out of. I don’t expect the entire house to be finished by that time; it’s just not physically possible, but even if we have to wear hard hats, we’ll have an office for us and them.”

How the Millay House managed to connect with the Telling Room, is all due to Roxanne Quimby, whom Westkaemper calls their “angel donor” who was pivotal in the house’s rescue from demolition.

“Roxanne was very interested in helping us with our vision and mission and she is also a big fan of the Telling Room,” said Westkaemper.  “As we’re both literary organizations, she encouraged us to reach out to them .”

Westkaemper said that the room where Edna St. Vincent Millay was born will be renovated to look exactly like it did at the turn of the century. “One side of the duplex will be for the writers in residence program and the other side, the south side of the duplex will be office space,” she said.

Andrew Griswold, the Telling Room’s Director of Communications, said he and the staff are excited to have a Midcoast presence, something they’ve wanted to do for years, but the timing wasn’t right. “It was always just a little too far with volunteers and staff to drive up to the Midcoast and do a number of in-school sessions, so we could really never get a residency going until now,” he said.

“We’re working to slowly build on our Portland model here to get some core programs in place with the schools such as in-school residencies where we would work with a class on a project to make a book,” he said. “So, we’ve been talking with RSU-13, and Oceanside middle school and high school about starting there. And I think the space in the Millay House when it is completed will be a great for after-school workshops or drop-ins. We know that there is a bus line that actually runs right by the house, so that’s perfect. The creative workshops could be anything from fiction writing to ghost stories around Halloween to some sort of arts-integration project with a theme like Valentine’s Day.”

Griswold said they’re hoping to eventually hire a program director to work out of the Millay House, but that they are moving slowly. “The whole idea first is to get the word out and get more kids in the door interested in writing,” he said. “The first year will be tasked with establishing a solid base of volunteers who we call ‘teaching artists,’ who will be able to help with our core programs. A hallmark of our approach is to get the lowest student to adult ratio as possible. So, we’ll be looking for writers, retired teachers, college graduates anyone who has a love for writing and who are looking to do some really dedicated literary volunteer work with kids in the area.”

Right around the time that the first Millay Arts and Poetry Festival slated for September 7-9, 2017 takes place in downtown Rockland, the Telling Room will begin working with students.  The city-wide arts and literary festival produced by the Millay House Rockland, in partnership with a host of other organizations, plans to offer poetry, music, art, theatre workshops, open mics symposiums and keynote speakers across the three-day span. For more information visit Millay House Rockland: millayhouse.com/

The Telling Room is a nonprofit writing center in Portland, Maine, dedicated to the idea that children and young adults are natural storytellers. Focused on young writers ages 6 to 18, we seek to build confidence, strengthen literacy skills, and provide real audiences for our students. For more information visit The Telling Room: tellingroom.org/

Related story: A peek inside the Rockland house where Edna St. Vincent Millay was born