Mentor Series

Congratulations to the 2025-2026 fellows!

Congratulations Fellows!

Congratulations to the 2025–2026 Mentor Series Fellows!

Congratulations 2025–2026 Fellows

The Loft Literary Center is excited to announce the 2025–2026 Loft Mentor Series Fellowship in Poetry and Creative Prose. Three fellows and up to three honorable mentions were selected in each of the genres of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and children’s literature. The fellows are listed below.

Nonfiction Selections

Angelina Nguyen, Ellen Rogers, and Rae Rowe have been selected for the fellowship program in creative nonfiction.

Honorable mentions are Betsy Hoody and Leticia Snow.

Poetry Selections

Mary Beth Becker, Tina Gross, and Sook Jin Ong 翁淑君 have been selected for the fellowship program in poetry.

Honorable mentions are Judea DeMaris and Bridget Lee.

Fiction Selections

Michelle Jayne, Yasin Williams, and Madeleine Wolfe have been selected for the fellowship program in fiction.

Honorable mention is Sophie Nitkas.

Children’s Literature Selections

Skye Reddy, Mari Richards, and Mishy Wang have been selected for the fellowship program in children’s literature.

Honorable mentions are Angie Gentile-Jordan, Avalon George, and Sara Osman.

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

Congratulations 2025–2026 Fellows

2025–2026 Mentors

Local fiction mentor: Chris Stark; Local nonfiction mentor: Taiyon J. Coleman; Local poetry mentor: Sarah Ghazal Ali; Local children's and young adult literature mentor: Molly Beth Griffin; Visiting fiction mentor: Vanessa Hua; Visiting nonfiction mentor: Anaïs Duplan; Visiting poetry mentor: Julian Talamantez Brolaski; Visiting children's and young adult literature mentor: Aida Salazar

Mentor Series 2025-2026 Now Closed

The Mentor Series application is now closed. The deadline was November 11, 2024.

Mentor Series Schedule Mentor Series Guidelines

Upcoming Mentor Series Events

There are no upcoming events for this category.

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 eight 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.