Milkwood Farm

Acceptances for Milkwood 2025 were emailed on March 20th. When we began renovating this falling-down barn in 2018, we had no idea that, someday, we would receive over a thousand applications for our retreats, workshops, and residencies. We spent the last several weeks poring over everyone’s applications, browsing websites, and reading stories. We were moved by the work we saw and the commitment to making and sharing good books for children. If you weren’t one of the 150 people to receive an acceptance or waitlist email, we thank you for your interest in Milkwood and hope you will apply again in the future. We wish we could host each and every one of you, but that isn’t possible. What we can do, through our programming in this little corner of the Catskills, is to support this extraordinary, inspiring, inclusive children’s book community. And we hope that, sooner or later, all of you will be able to join us at Milkwood. All our best for a safe and productive year. Sophie, Ed, and the Advisory Committee

Perhaps you heard Our Ed has a new play called EDWARD but maybe it sold out before you could grab tickets? Well! Several performances have been added at All Street Gallery @all.st.nyc in Manhattan for small audiences of 12 and TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST! Link is in profile! 📦

What are you doing July 10-13, 2025? Want to come to Milkwood? To share experiences with other educators and librarians? To talk books and libraries and everything else? To walk in fields and sleep in late and make new friends and eat cake? We want to take care of you! Register at milkwoodfarm.org ❤️

Do you need something creative to look forward to? Registration for Milkwood 2025 season is now open! Retreats, workshops and residencies for children’s book writers, illustrators, librarians, educators, early career and aspiring publishing professionals! Find out more at Milkwoodfarm.org or link in bio. We can’t wait to see you! Schedule below! ps These are @deborah.j.stein ‘s paints. ❤️ @milkwoodny JUNE 2-8 RESIDENCY FOR WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS JUNE 9-15 RESIDENCY FOR BIPOC WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS JULY 10-13 RETREAT FOR LIBRARIANS AND EDUCATORS JULY 17-20 INVITED MULTIDISCIPLINARY RETREAT JULY 24-27 IMAGE MAKING WORKSHOP AUGUST 7-10 PICTURE BOOK EDITING AND DESIGN WORKSHOP AUGUST 14-17 WORKSHOP FOR ILLUSTRATORS AUGUST 21-24 WORKSHOP FOR WRITERS OF PICTURE BOOKS SEPTEMBER 1-7 RESIDENCY FOR WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS SEPTEMBER 15-21 RESIDENCY FOR LGBTQ+ WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS SEPTEMBER 22-28 RESIDENCY FOR WRITERS AND ILLUSTRATORS

Milkwood registration is now open! There are new, exciting workshops and residencies this year. The full schedule can be found at Milkwoodfarm.org along with all the information on how to apply. (It’s very easy!) We can’t wait to see you this summer!

Want to come to MILKWOOD this summer? Want to help LA WILDFIRE RELIEF efforts? We are donating a spot at a week-long residency for children’s book writers and/or illustrators from September 1-7, 2025 to the highest bidder! Link to bid is in profile, or find it and many other wonderful auction items @kidlitforlosangeles ❤️

Greetings from Winter Milkwood! ❤️❄️

You may know Ed Schmidt because he once made you a Manhattan at Milkwood, and perhaps he told you he’s a playwright and performer and maybe even that he was working all summer (when he wasn’t doing a billion other things) on a new play… That play is here!! It’s called EDWARD and it’s WONDERFUL and there are 16 performances in Brooklyn and Manhattan for small audiences of 12 and TICKETS ARE SELLING FAST! Link is in profile and stories! 📦

New prints in the shop! Link in profile. As always, proceeds go to the Milkwood Scholarship Fund. Apparently there’s also a discount on Etsy today with code CYBER24 @milkwoodny and THANK YOU!! ❤️

Thank you to all of you who asked about buying prints of the sun coming up. We have reopened the store and all proceeds will go towards the scholarship program at Milkwood. Link to Etsy store in profile ❤️❤️❤️

I took this photo as we were leaving Milkwood on the last night of the season. When we were first dreaming up this place, my cousin Tom said, “It sounds like you’re building an ark.” An ark, a barn, a sanctuary—a place for us to gather to console and commiserate, to rest and mend, to read and write and draw and paint and be together. We will welcome you next spring with open arms. To sign up for 2025 schedule and application information, go to milkwoodfarm.org ❤️

When I was first imagining what Milkwood might be, part of it was a place to invite my friends and peers and heroes to gather around a table so we could pick each other’s brains and compare notes and bounce ideas around. I am so lucky to have my studio mates in Brooklyn who provide that for me on any given day, but many of us work in isolation and when we see each other on the road it’s a snatched conversation at an airport carousel or in a hotel elevator. This year I invited a bunch of authors and illustrators I admire, whose work I find interesting, who I thought would have a fine time in each other’s company. For the last retreat of the summer, it was a thrill to have Cece Bell, Abby Hanlon, Molly Idle, Juana Martinez-Neal, Keith Negley, LeUyen Pham, Matt Phelan, Isabel Roxas, Adam Rubin and Dan Salmieri (and special lunch guest @sarahlynnbaker ) at Milkwood. It was fantastic to see Juana and Molly at work on their next collaboration, to see the brilliant and hilarious manifestations of Cece Bell’s brain, to watch Adam and Dan arguing about wildflowers, to look over Uyen’s shoulder as she draws like some kind of sorceress, to hear Abby’s plans for Dory in all her glory, to FINALLY catch up with Matt after all these years of carousels and elevators, (and to learn of his exciting secret news), to have history rewritten by Keith, and to have my mind scrambled by Isabel’s profound would-you-rathers. Some of the questions discussed were, How do you feel about two-book deals? Is middle-grade really in trouble? What do you wish your agent would do for you that they don’t? Have you ever regretted doing a book? Can the protagonist of a picture book be killed off at the end? Would you rather go to prison or be adrift in space? Are there pillows in prison? If so, how many? Thank you, dear @cecebellbooks #abbyhanlon @mollyidle @juanamartinezn @keith_negley @uyenloseordraw @mattphelandraws @rubingo_books @dansalmieri @studioroxas ❤️