Event

August 19, 2026

6:30 p.m.–8:30 p.m.

Loft Connect Live! A Showcase of Loft Talent (Alexandra Sifferlin, Ty Chapman, Anika Fajardo, and Emily Bright)

Celebrate some of the Loft's most vibrant new voices. Join us to discover fresh perspectives, hear compelling live excerpts, and connect in conversation. We'll be joined by New York Times health columnist Alexandra Sifferlin, MPR's Emily Bright, and award-winning writers Anika Fajardo and Ty Chapman.

Following the readings, stay for a casual reception where you can meet the authors and mingle with fellow book lovers. Book sales provided by Subtext Books.

About the Books:
The Elusive Body: Patients, Doctors, and the Diagnosis Crisis
By Alexandra Sifferlin
A compelling and urgent investigation into the American healthcare system by a New York Times Science editor. Sifferlin explores the maddening reality of millions living with undiagnosed illnesses, embedding with medical researchers who are bypassing insurance bureaucracy to solve medicine's greatest mysteries.

Witness: Poems to Address the Past, Present, and Future of Policing
Co-edited by Ty Chapman & Ari Tison
A potent, deeply moving YA poetry anthology co-edited by past Loft Fellow Ty Chapman. This vital collection features a chorus of nearly forty literary luminaries—including Amanda Gorman, Jason Reynolds, and Ada Limón—offering readers an evocative space to reflect, discuss, and witness.

The Many Mothers of Dolores Moore
By Anika Fajardo
A magically insightful novel from a Minnesota Book Award finalist, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo. After becoming an orphan at thirty-five, Dorrie Moore is followed by a "Greek chorus" of deceased relatives whose unsolicited advice eventually sends her to Colombia to unlock her family secrets.

This Ground Beneath Our Feet
By Emily Bright
Culled from nearly twenty years of writing by poet and MPR News host Emily Bright, this luminous collection sails from historical ancestral crossings to the quiet world of a neighborhood backyard. With lyrical precision, these poems celebrate the natural world and the profound connections that form across distances.