Mentor Series

Mentor Series

Congratulations to this year's fellows!

Congratulations 2023–2024 Fellows

The Loft Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose offers twelve early career Minnesota writers the opportunity to work intensively with six nationally acclaimed writers of prose and poetry.

Congratulations to the 2023–2024 Mentor Series Fellows: in creative nonfiction, Tommy Frank, Tim Knight, Paul Lai, and Hana Worku; in poetry, Sara Dovre Wudali, José Felipe Ozuna, jd hegarty, and Aurora Masum-Javed; and in fiction, LaTreena Felegy, Dorcy Jaffray, Cindy Jiban, and Rebecca Nichloson.

The Loft Mentor Series is supported by grants from the Jerome Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts and by Loft members.

2023–2024 Mentors

In fiction, Ernesto Quiñonez and Swati Avasthi; in nonfiction, Billy-Ray Belcourt and Juliet Patterson; and in poetry, Marilyn Nelson and torrin a. greathouse. 

Upcoming Mentor Series Events
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About the Mentor Series

The Loft Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose offers twelve early career Minnesota writers the opportunity to work intensively with six nationally acclaimed writers of prose and poetry for one fellowship year. Offered since 1979, the Mentor Series is the Loft's oldest mentorship program. The Mentor Series is funded by the Jerome Foundation, the NEA, and Loft Members.

An incomplete list of past program mentors include Danez Smith, Marlon James, Tracy K. Smith, Grace Paley, Lorrie Moore, Louise Erdrich, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Mark Doty, Diane Glancy, Toi Derricotte, Dani Shapiro, Allison Hedge Coke, Richard Blanco, Dinty Moore, Nick Flynn, Evelina Chao, Michael Ondaatje, Sharon Olds, June Jordan, Joy Harjo, Gerald Stern, Sandra Cisneros, Dorianne Laux, Yusef Komanyaaka, Alexs Pate, David Mura, Li-Young Lee, Martin Espada, Deborah Keenan, Jim Moore, Nikki Giovanni, Charles Baxter, Maxine Hong Kingston, Nuruddin Farah, Rita Dove, Jessica Hagedorn, Phillip Levine, Marge Piercy, Agha Shahid Ali, Lynda Barry, Ai, Amy Bloom, G.E. Patterson, Sigrid Nunez, Barrie Jean Borich, Heid Erdrich, Diego Vazquez, Jr., Kao Kalia Yang, Sun Yung Shin, Diane Wilson, Vu Tran, Sugi Ganeshananthan, and many, many more.