WHEN we dream of winning a writing contest, the typical prizes that come to mind are money, publication, perhaps a fancy medallion or certificate, and a line on one’s list of literary accolades. But there are a handful of contests that offer more: an acknowledgement that for many writers a particularly valuable prize is simply the time, space, and privacy in which to write. The following residency programs have partnered with the sponsors of writing contests to present just such a prize to the winners, providing them with room and serenity in manors, fortresses, ranches, and beachside hotels around the world.
American Academy in Rome
When a group of famed architects, painters, and sculptors began envisioning the American Academy in Rome in 1893, they chose Italy’s capital because, as they later wrote, “with the architectural and sculptural monuments and mural paintings, its galleries filled with the chefs d’oeuvre of every epoch, no other city offers such a field for study or an atmosphere so replete with precedents.” Well over a century later, the American Academy in Rome continues to welcome writers, scholars, and artists—including Rome Prize Fellows, residents, affiliated fellows, visiting artists and scholars, and other creatives and academics working in the humanities and the arts—to its wheelchair-accessible campus perched at the top of the Janiculum, the second-tallest hill in Rome. There, amid eleven acres of gardens and ten buildings, including the academy building designed by McKim, Mead & White, residents live and work in an atmosphere of community and simplicity, both joining in lively collaboration and focusing on their creative and.
