The Loft Literary Center

JANUARY 23, 2026 The Loft Literary Center belongs to a community rooted in language, creativity, and the belief that stories and the people who tell them deserve safety, dignity, and the freedom to live and speak without fear. We stand behind basic human and constitutional rights and freedoms, including those protected by the 1st, 4th, and 5th amendments of the U.S. Constitution. These rights have been consistently ignored and defied by federal authorities in Minnesota. bell hooks once asked, "Is it possible to sustain life? Can we embrace an ethos of sustainability that is not solely about the appropriate care of the world's resources, but is also about the creation of meaning—the making of lives that we feel are worth living?" In that spirit, our mission includes the building of just, life-sustaining communities. We are committed to doing everything in our power to uphold the conditions that allow art, dialogue, democratic participation, and human flourishing. Many of the writers who shape our programs and our team are immigrants, refugees, people of color, and come from immigrant families. On January 23rd, the Loft is closing in solidarity with the economic blackout movement. We are calling on federal authorities to act lawfully, respect due process, and honor their constitutional oaths.

We stand in solidarity with the courageous organizations and neighbors across Minnesota who are working for accountability, justice, and safety, some of which are highlighted here: ACLU Minnesota: aclu-mn.org COPAL: copalmn.org Guante’s Resource Page: guante.info/try/ Immigrant Defense Network: immigrantdefensenetwork.org Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota: ilcm.org MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee: miracmn.com MONARCA Rapid Response Line: monarcamn.org WFM’s Immigrant Rapid Response Fund: wfmn.org/funds/immigrant-rapid-response Sign the ICE Out MN pledge: loftlit.co/iceout

The Loft will be closed this Friday January 23rd. ICE Out of Minnesota.

Spots are available for my Tuesday evening class at @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social starting in February! The perfect antidote to these trying times. 💚🌳💚
#writingcommunity
#poetrycommunity
#nature #journaling #mindfulness #environmental #writing

loft.org/classes/eart...

Literary world mourns loss of Renee Nicole Good’s poetry The mother of three won a literary award in 2020 and lived her values of kindness and care for community.

Minnesota's literary community mourns Minneapolis mother and poet killed by ICE

Photograph of Sherrie Fernandez-Williams, a Black woman with glasses and very long dreadlocs. In this photo she is wearing a blue headband and patterned blue-and-gold shirt.

For more, follow @reentrylab, or go to reentrylab.org

Sherrie Fernandez-Williams (she/her) earned her MFA in Writing from Hamline University. She was a 2021-2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow and a 2021 Black Voices in Children’s Literature winner. Author of Goddess of the Whole Self and Soft: A Memoir. Fernandez-Williams has published…

Did you see the Loft's video from our activity at Youth Pride Night at ‪@twincitiespride.bsky.social? It is pretty heartwarming to hear these joyful, fierce, proud young voices. ‬https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcX71HayXv0

There’s still a few spaces left in @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social ‘s summer youth writing intensive, for ages 14-18, the week of July 28! 🙌🏽✨ Access funds are available.

There are still some spots left in my half-day online workshop this Saturday on The Power of Retelling for @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social. If you're working on a retelling, thinking of working on one, or you just think they're neat, come join us!

Columbia, SC will be a poetry vortex this week! Join me for the Soda City Poetry Festival and poeTRYhealing with The Loft Literary Center

Columbia, SC, will be a #poetry vortex this week! And I’m teaching poeTRYhealing for @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social too! Check out my Green Ink Substack and *bonus points* for reading to the end: a photo of my wife and me on our tenth wedding anniversary! 💜🏳️‍🌈🥰

open.substack.com/pub/cassiepr...

Graphic with the Writing Excuses podcast logo and some icons of microphones and audio waves.

We have some rush pay-what-you-can tickets now available for Tuesday night's recording of the Writing Excuses podcast. This is a rare opportunity—join us! loft.org/events/writi...

There are twelve spots left in my online From Page to Publication class through @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social this summer! This thread explains more about what we’ll be covering (hint: everything!) loft.org/classes/8-we...

If anyone has novel excerpts in need of tender love and care, consider joining my virtual workshop w @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social starting Wednesday, June 18. The link's in the comments. DM me if you have any questions. And if you can, please spread the word 😊

I stopped writing poetry for years, then began online classes thru @hugohouse.bsky.social & @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social & elsewhere. In 2022 Ice Floe Press published my debut. Last nite I headlined a reading series w one of those teachers, poet @amiewhittemore.bsky.social. A wow moment for me!

July 7 storytelling event graphic featuring A Rafael Johnson and a painted image of George Floyd.

June 29 storytelling remembrance event featuring image of Michael Kleber-Diggs and painted image of George Floyd.

Just announced: Two free storytelling workshops on June 29 and July 7 at Pillsbury House in remembrance of the five-year anniversary of George Floyd's murder.

June 29 with @mkdordiggsy.bsky.social
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July 7 with @therafaeljohnson.bsky.social
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Saturday, June 7th 4:00 PM at Open Book in Minneapolis. Free. A bevy of brilliant readers. ASL interpreted. Join us!
@krisbigalk.bsky.social @heideerdrich.bsky.social @hawona.bsky.social @mkdordiggsy.bsky.social @raymondluczak.com @josinamm.bsky.social @slipfast.bsky.social @sagirahs.bsky.social

I’m excited to announce that I’m a Teaching Artist at @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social and I’m really looking forward to teaching this class in June! #writing #amwriting #writers #BookSky #writingcommunity #poet #poets #poems #poetry #indie #publisher #teaching #writingclass #trama #traumainformed

Graphic for the June 24 event featuring a live recording of the Writing Excuses podcast. Graphic has Writing Excuses and Loft logos with some audio icons including dialogue bubbles and a microphone.

Join us June 24 for this special live recording of @writingexcuses.bsky.social

@nirele.bsky.social ‬
@dongwon.bsky.social @maryrobinettekowal.com @howardtayler.bsky.social ‪‪‪

loft.org/events/writi...

I'm so proud of this project, so lucky to be a very tiny part of it.

@kwessel.bsky.social @commonerszine.bsky.social @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social

This emerged out of the Loft's Lit!Commons program. It is so beautiful.

Congratulations to Loft teaching artist @darklake.bsky.social, the 2025 George Garrett award winner at AWP!
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We are here. I love that.

Thanks for this and for joining us yesterday, Amanda. 💚🙏

Loft and Magers and Quinn stage ready for the event

Lineup of “Dear Writer” books by Maggie Smith ready to be signed.

Gearing up for the sold out @maggiesmithpoet.bsky.social event tonight with Magers and Quinn.

The Loft table at Queer Writes. Features multicolored envelopes with themed love poems inside. Spin the wheel to win yours!

The wheel of love. Blind dates include heartbreak, transient love, complicated love, eternal love, unrequited love, love lost, first love, physical love, sacrificial love, self love

We’re at Queer Writes today at the Machine Shop. Come say hi and spin the wheel for a blind date with a poem!

Poets and Writers: Want to renew your commitment to your writing? The @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social's LIt!Commons program is an innovative online community with talented teaching artists including @allisonwyss.bsky.social, @artcoulson.com, and more. Check us out! loft.thinkific.com/courses/lit-...

The Thing Is BY ELLEN BASS to love life, to love it even when you have no stomach for it and everything you’ve held dear crumbles like burnt paper in your hands, your throat filled with the silt of it. When grief sits with you, its tropical heat thickening the air, heavy as water more fit for gills than lungs; when grief weights you down like your own flesh only more of it, an obesity of grief, you think, How can a body withstand this? Then you hold life like a face between your palms, a plain face, no charming smile, no violet eyes, and you say, yes, I will take you I will love you, again.

Because maybe you need this poem as much as I do.

A poem for my last day working at the writing center for the semester (by Joseph Fasano)

Buy all banned books as presents

On-line class on Feb 1, 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time/ 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time/11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Pacific Time

Class description: How to better read and write metaphors

Teaching Artist: Jennifer S. Brown

I am excited to be teaching an online class on metaphor at @loftliterarycenter.bsky.social on Feb 1. If you're looking to improve your writing or better understand what you're reading, this one-day class is for you. Sign up here: loft.org/classes/unlo...

#writingclass #writingcommunity

Percival Everett stands at the podium. The text "PERCIVAL EVERETT, James, Winner, 2024 National Book Award for Fiction" is overlaid.

Percival Everett smiles as he's patted on the back and lit up in a spotlight.

IT'S PERCIVAL EVERETT! Percival Everett, author of JAMES, is the winner of the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction! "Hope is really no substitute for strategy."
bookshop.org/a/169/978038...

The Loft Presents: Danez Smith "Let America Be America Again" YouTube video by The Loft Literary Center

Reminded of this from the Loft archive in 2017. Still so powerful and perhaps never more relevant.

The Loft Presents: Danez Smith "Let America Be America Again"
youtu.be/b6Im4b3kdfc

A poem by Langston Hughes titled "Tired". It reads as the following: "I am so tired of waiting, Aren't you, For the world to become good And beautiful and kind? Let us take a knife And cut the world in two -- And see what worms are eating At the rind."

I've been thinking about this poem by Langston Hughes recently and although it was published in 1931, it remains relevant as ever.

#books #reading #booksky #poetry