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.

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