About Events

About Loft Events

The Loft offers a diverse array of literary events, reading series, book launches, and more. Please see our calendar listings—we encourage everyone to participate. Expand your literary network, get inspired, be entertained, or just support your local and global literary community.

Annual Events
Wordplay & Wordsmith

Each year, the Loft presents two major annual events—Wordplay and Wordsmith. Wordplay is a festival for readers of all kinds to come together, connect, and celebrate the year in books. Wordsmith is a career, connection, and craft conference for writers at all levels.

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Wordplay Wordsmith
Loft Themes
The Loft Presents Needs

Through the theme of Needs, the Loft will explore the ways in which the written word unpacks need and helps keep us alive, nourished, and connected.

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Needs Theme Graphic
Signature Events and Series

The Loft's signature, recurring events include the Mentor Series, Equilibrium, and Big Ideas. Learn more below.

Mentor Series Marker
Loft Mentor Series

The Loft Mentor Series holds six readings and craft conversations throughout the course of the program. Two emerging writers read from their work, along with one of the nationally acclaimed authors who is mentoring the participants. Readings are a blend of all three genres on which the Mentor Series focuses: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.

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EQ Marker
Loft Equilibrium (EQ)

Equilibrium, EQ for short, is the Loft's ground-breaking and wildly successful series devoted to spoken word artists and audiences of color. Acclaimed as one of the nation's top spoken word venues, EQ combines an intimate, engaging atmosphere with energetic, packed houses. EQ has created a space where national talent shares the stage with local emerging artists.

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Big Ideas Graphic
Loft Big Ideas

Big Ideas is a series from the Loft that puts literature at the center of dynamic conversations and brings together readers and writers to explore the most pressing issues and questions facing our society today.

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Upcoming Events
Apr
11
2019
An Evening with Curtis Sittenfeld
Curtis Sittenfeld will be in conversation with the prolific, charming, and hilarious Lorna Landvik, author of the upcominging release Chronicles of a Radical Hag (with Recipes), which will be featured during the Loft’s inaugural Wordplay.

Join us for a buoyant evening of fun and camaraderie at the beautiful Lake of the Isles home of Board of Directors member Eric Roberts and his wife Laura Davis.
Apr
12
2019
Fierce Lament
Fierce Lament is an anthology that brings together over 30 poets, essayists, artists, and activists who were asked to respond to the query, “How do we sustain ourselves and our communities in the face of intense uncertainty fueled by global climate change, growing nationalism and political extremism fueled by social media and the Internet.” This event will feature contributors Lisa Marie Brimmer, Pam Costain, MN State Senator Scott Dibble, GE Patterson, Michael Kleber-Diggs, David Lawrence Grant, and Brad Zellar.
Apr
19
2019
Mentor Series Reading with Natalie Diaz
​The Loft Literary Center Presents a 2018-2019 Loft Mentor Series Reading with mentor Natalie Diaz and fellows Mimi Iimuro Van Ausdall and Jessie Lee-Bauder.
 
Can I Read at the Loft?

The Loft is committed to providing authors and audiences with unique events that deepen their understanding of the craft of writing, and engage them in lively and thought-provoking discussions. We strive to produce events that encourage crowd participation, build audiences for diverse authors, and offer learning opportunities to the more than 4,000 students who take our classes. These goals are the foundation of our programming.

We receive many more requests than we can accommodate to produce events. Read on to learn about the types of events we host and sponsor, how to rent our performance hall for your own reading or event, and other ways we help promote authors' books.

Can I Read at the Loft?