From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
If you're curious about the Loft's Year-Long Poetry Apprenticeship Writing Project Hieu Minh Nguyen or the Year-Long Fiction Writing Project with Junauda Petrus and learning which is right for you, come to this informal information session to find out more! In this session, we'll discuss the each of the programs, the year ahead, and how your project may fit in. The teaching mentors of each cohort will share an overview about what to expect during the year ahead. This event is free and open to the public, and it takes place online, via Zoom. This will be a recorded event. Please pre-register for this event.
Event title: Advancing Craft & Community: Different Literary Center Approaches & Strategies
Scheduled day: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Scheduled time: 1:45 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. PT
Scheduled room: Room 502A, Los Angeles Convention Center, Level Two
Given their common goal of engaging diverse audiences, amplifying marginalized voices, and promoting the connective power of the arts, how do the Loft Literary Center, Lighthouse Writers Workshop, and StoryStudio Chicago converge and diverge in their approaches? Administrators and teaching artists across a range of viewpoints, ethnicities, and geography will discuss their experiences working with writers of all backgrounds through local and digital programming and look to what's next.
Event Organizer: Marianne Manzler
Moderator: G.E. Patterson
Participants: Marianne Manzler, Marissa Morrow, Rebecca Makkai, and Kathryn Kysar
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
If you're curious about the Loft's Year-Long Poetry Apprenticeship Writing Project Hieu Minh Nguyen or the Year-Long Fiction Writing Project with Junauda Petrus and learning which is right for you, come to this informal information session to find out more! In this session, we'll discuss the each of the programs, the year ahead, and how your project may fit in. The teaching mentors of each cohort will share an overview about what to expect during the year ahead. This event is free and open to the public, and it takes place online, via Zoom. This will be a recorded event. Please pre-register for this event.
Join Magers & Quinn and the Loft Literary Center for an evening with beloved poet Maggie Smith in conversation with Jeannine Ouellette, celebrating her brand new book on writing!
Good to know:
Books can be purchased with ticket or at the event. The best way to ensure your copy is to pre-purchase with your ticket on Magers and Quinn's website!
Check in starts at 5:00pm, Event starts at 5:30pm
The Performance Hall is on the 2nd floor of the Open Book building
About the book: New York Times bestselling author and poet Maggie Smith distills creativity and the craft of writing with a practical guide perfect for fans of Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic and Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird.
Drawing from her twenty years of teaching experience and her bestselling Substack newsletter, For Dear Life, Maggie Smith breaks down creativity into ten essential elements: attention, wonder, vision, play, surprise, vulnerability, restlessness, tenacity, connection, and hope. Each element is explored through short, inspiring, and craft-focused essays, followed by generative writing prompts. Dear Writer provides tools that artists of all experience levels can apply to their own creative practices and carry with them into all genres and all areas of life.
Writing a memoir requires profound self-examination and honesty, which can be particularly challenging for writers from marginalized backgrounds or those writing about trauma. By offering prompts that encourage a fresh perspective on your stories, we aim to make this process more approachable. We will examine examples of innovative and hybrid memoirs and essays, engaging in generative exercises that explore structure, constraints, shifting points of view, and speculative elements. These experiments will open new pathways for expression, providing entry points for developing your memoir manuscript.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
The Loft presents an evening of student readings! Come join us for a showcase of some of the Loft's talented students, as they read some of their own work.
10 student enrolled in 2024-2025 classes will be reading the work/s of their choice. All genres/formats are welcome! Also, we highly encourage all interested students to attend the reading as well as family and friends!
Interested in reading? We'll host 10 students who enrolled in a 2024-2025 class to read a work of their choice (5-7 minutes long). All genres and formats welcome! If you are interested in claiming a spot to read, please email or call the Education Department at edu@loft.org or 612-379-8999 so we can verify your enrollment and get your spot in the reading confirmed!
This event is free and open to the public. Masks are highly encouraged, but not required. This event will be taking place in the Performance Hall at Open Book. Doors open at 5:30 and event starts at 6 PM.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Join and celebrate the Loft's young writers as they read from works written in a Loft summer youth camp! This reading takes place from 12:30-1:30PM and is open to family, friends, and the public.
Please email edu@loft.org at least three weeks in advance if you have any accessibility requests for this event. Please note the elevator in Open Book will be unavailable for use from July - August 2025 due to modernization. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Mumu Stories, every other Sunday, breaks bread with guest artists, family members, entrepreneurs, and topics range from childhood myths to creative journeys. This newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
If you're curious about the Loft's Summer Youth Camps and Writing Intensives and learning which is right for you, come to this informal information session to find out more! Perfect for families new to the Loft or returning friends, we'll discuss the each of the programs, the year ahead, and how you or your student may fit in. Some of the summer youth teaching mentors will share an overview about what to expect during their camp. This event is free and open to the public, and it takes place online, via Zoom. This will be a recorded event. Please pre-register for this event.
We will hear from acclaimed poet Danez Smith read from their curated collection Blues in Stereo: The Early Works of Langston Hughes alongside a few youth students. Doors open at 3:30 PM for the event and there will be time at the end for a Q&A, book signing, and small reception. This event is intended for all ages.
From childhood myths to creative journeys, this newsletter & podcast explores the stories that shape us, haunt us, linger in between.
Please join us to celebrate the conclusion of the 2024 Year-Long Creative Nonfiction Writing Project. Participants from the Year-Long 2024 Creative Nonfiction Writing Project will read from their completed manuscripts at this culminating event. The CNF cohort is led by Sun Yung Shin.
Manzler was one of five participants of this project, who met weekly via zoom over the course of 2024, and each participant will be sharing parts of their memoir and/or their experiences going through this process. The participants include Hedy Tripp, Angelina Nguyen, Hoang Murphy, and Npaus Baim Her.
This online event is free and open to the public, but you must register to attend. You will receive Zoom login instructions with your confirmation email.
Come join this reading with local Minnesotan writers–and don’t miss your chance to win our meat raffle!
Register for the Zoom link on Loft’s website. Cost: $55
3-hour virtual workshop on Experimentation with Hybrid Memoir
Writing a memoir requires profound self-examination and honesty, which can be particularly challenging for writers from marginalized backgrounds or those writing about trauma. By offering prompts that encourage a fresh perspective on your stories, we aim to make this process more approachable. We will examine examples of innovative and hybrid memoirs and essays, engaging in generative exercises that explore structure, constraints, shifting points of view, and speculative elements. These experiments will open new pathways for expression, providing entry points for developing your memoir manuscript.
In this class, we will also explore the diverse forms and possibilities of the essay, building a portfolio of work while developing a shared vocabulary around the craft elements of creative nonfiction. Through discussion, reading, workshops, and practice, we will cultivate our imaginative space and deepen our understanding of our own processes as writers, thinkers, and creators. In this three-hour class, we will immerse ourselves in in contemporary essays to explore the range of tools and techniques available to us as essayists and memiorists. We will identify and discuss these craft techniques through short reading responses and group discussions, and you will practice using these techniques and experimenting with form through low-stakes writing prompts.
This course welcomes anyone wanting to hone their skills and receive feedback in a supportive environment, and it is best suited for intermediate writers. You do not need to submit anything in advance to join.
All Classes listed on the Loft website take place in Central Standard Time (CST); make sure you understand your time zone, and adjust accordingly
If you're curious about the Loft's Year-Long Writing Project in Novel Writing with Peter Geye, Creative Nonfiction with Sun Yung Shin, Memoir with Carolyn Holbrook, or Poetry with Heid E. Erdrich and which is right for you, come to this informal information session to find out more! In this session, we'll discuss the each of the programs, the year ahead, and how your project may fit in. The teaching mentors of each cohort will share an overview about what to expect and the Program Manager of Education Marianne Manzler will provide more administrative and financial information. It is free and open to the public, and it takes place online, via Zoom. This will be a recorded event. Please pre-register for this event.
Register here!
Do you love to write, and also love to craft? In this camp, we'll spend half our time writing and the other half crafting our words into pieces of art. We'll write a series of poems, and then compile them into zines or chapbooks using beautiful papers. We'll write short stories, then publish them by cutting out the sentences and forming them into a sculpture. We'll make snow globes, design our own puzzles, send messages in bottles, and more, all as a means of self-publishing our words—craftily!
This drop-off camp is offered during MSP's MEA break and designed for campers in grades 1-3. Consider registering for a Minnesota Center for the Book Arts workshop in the afternoon, Suminagashi Paper Marbling: Ages 6-8 here, for a full day of visual and literary arts in Open Book! Campers attending both camps must bring lunch from home. To experience the full day, please register for Lunch Time Care here here; Loft and MCBA staff will facilitate lunch and a brief field trip outside (weather permitting). Space is limited.
Please email edu@loft.org if you have any accessibility requests for this class. This class takes place in-person, at the Loft at Open Book; we encourage participants to be fully vaccinated and masked in the interest of everyone’s safety. Please see the Loft’s website for the most up to date information about the Loft’s COVID policies.
If you're curious about the Loft's Year-Long Writing Project in Novel Writing with Peter Geye, Creative Nonfiction with Sun Yung Shin, Memoir with Carolyn Holbrook, or Poetry with Heid E. Erdrich and which is right for you, come to this informal information session to find out more! In this session, we'll discuss the each of the programs, the year ahead, and how your project may fit in. The teaching mentors of each cohort will share an overview about what to expect and the Program Manager of Education Marianne Manzler will provide more administrative and financial information. It is free and open to the public, and it takes place online, via Zoom. This will be a recorded event. Please pre-register for this event.
Register here!
Join us as we celebrate our writing community! During this social hour, we encourage current and prospective friends of the Loft to come write with us for the first hour at Open Book, expand your network, and join us for the Writers of Color Open Mic Reading afterwards. Plus, sign up to share a short reading of your work! Drinks and light bites are provided.
4:00 - 5:00 PM Mixer - Come write at Open Book for happy hour or socialize and network at the FRGMNT cafe downstairs!
5:30-7:00 PM Writers of Color Open Mic/Reading
Students from any of the The Loft Literary Center's Writers of Color and Indigenous Writers classes will read new work on August 28. Doors open at 5 PM and the reading starts at 5:30 PM. The reading will take in the place in the Performance Hall at Open Book. If you were a student in any of the 2024 Writers of Color classes and would like to read, please email edu@loft.org to be added as a reader.
with Aurielle Marie, Kelly McBurnette-Andronicos, Alissa Morgan Barr, Clare Needham, Chi S, and Dujie Tahat
Loft Lit!Commons is a new virtual gathering space designed to guide writers to achieve their most common writing goals. Your personalized, transformative journey will help you overcome barriers, sharpen skills, develop habits, connect with fellow writers, amplify your creativity, and explore publishing options.
Loft Literary Center and More Than a Single Story
with Carolyn Holbrook, David Mura, Alexs Pate, Marcie Rendon, Arleta Little, GE Patterson, and Vickie Benson
with Piper Lane, Rachel Hill, Tara Atkinson, Peter Mountford
Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, Seattle, WA
with Will Durham, Deven Philbrick, Patrick Milian, and David Shields
Hugo House, 1634 11th Ave, Seattle, WA
with Will Durham, Deven Philbrick, Jasmine Khaliq, Caleb Braun, and Minna Lee
Third Place Books Ravenna, 6504 20th Ave NE, Seattle, WA.
