Full-term and half-term Rome Prize Fellowships are available in literature. Applicants must demonstrate professional commitment and be currently engaged in work in the discipline. To be eligible, applicants must have commercially published, between January 1, 2018, and November 15, 2024, one of the following.

Included in literature: fiction, literary nonfiction, and poetry.

For applicants in fiction and literary nonfiction:

• A novel or novella; or
• A volume of creative nonfiction; or
• A volume of short fiction or a collection of short stories

For applicants in poetry:

• A volume of forty-eight or more pages of poetry
• To qualify, submitted work must have been first published between the dates listed above, not only reprinted or reissued in another format during this period

Additional Criteria for All Applicants in Literature

The following may not be used to establish eligibility:

• Self-published books
• Work that has appeared in a publication for which you are the editor, publisher, or staff
• Any publication by presses that: require individual writers to pay for part or all of the production costs; require writers to buy or sell copies of the publication; publish work without competitive selection or a stated editorial policy; or publish work without professional editing

A completed online application form and the following documents, to be uploaded to your online application as separate digital files.

1. Current résumé/curriculum vitae.

2. One-page proposal describing the project to be undertaken. Please address the following questions in your proposal:

• How will the proposed project and your own professional development will benefit from a residency within a multidisciplinary community in Rome?
• What guides or motivates your work?
• Rome is a modern city powerfully stamped by the material remains of the past. Is this past important to your present? If so, why?
• What, if any, resources in Rome or Italy will be significant to the completion of your proposed project?
• What kind of workspace do you need in Rome?

Your proposal should be double-spaced with 10- to 12-point typeface and one-inch margins.

3. Up to three writing samples totaling no more than twenty pages. This may be one sample totaling no more than twenty pages; a selection of excerpts from one work totaling no more than twenty pages; or up to three separate samples from different works, totaling no more than twenty pages.

Also needed are three references. Provide the names and contact information only for three professionals acquainted with you and your work. Letters of recommendation are not required for applicants in literature.

Finally, you must submit an application fee paid by credit card through our online payment option or by check or money order made payable to American Academy in Rome. Send to:

American Academy in Rome
Attention: Literature
535 West 22nd Street, Third Floor
New York, NY 10011

This fall, the American Academy in Rome will host two in-person information sessions about the Rome Prize. The first takes place at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on Tuesday, September 24. The second will be presented at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence on Tuesday, October 8. 

AAR will also present two general online information sessions on Zoom on September 23 and October 15. A third virtual meeting, focused only on landscape architecture, will happen on October 16.

These information sessions give prospective applicants a general overview of the Rome Prize application process, tips on what makes a successful application, and a look into the experience of living in the American Academy’s unique residential community in Rome.