Event

April 19, 2025

6 p.m.–8 p.m.

Loft Through the Years

Join the Loft Literary Center and Milkweed for an evening with Mark Gustafson, celebrating Mark's new book Sowing Seeds. Mark will be in conversation with Jim Lenfestey, considering Minnesota's literary landscape from the late 1950s through today.

Good to know:

Purchase tickets via the Loft's website at $10 for general public or $5 for Friends of the Loft. Please pre-register for this event. A limited number of pay-as-you-can tickets are available at the door on the-day of.

You can find the Sowing Seeds book here and purchasing from bookshop will benefit the Loft! Milkweed will also sell Mark's and Jim's books onsite.

Check in starts at 5:30pm, Event starts at 6:00pm
The Performance Hall is on the 2nd floor of the Open Book building

About the book: How and why did Minnesota, distant from both dream coasts, become a literary mecca? Why not Chicago, Detroit, Milwaukee, St Louis, or Cleveland? What made the Twin Cities fertile ground for the birth and growth of the Loft Literary Center, the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, and Milkweed Editions, and an ideal place for Graywolf Press and Coffee House Press to transplant themselves?

This book is about a community of writers who supported one another, knowing that "all flourishing is mutual." Profusely illustrated, it tells of the rise of poetry readings, literary magazines, small presses, independent bookstores, and much else in the 1960s and 70s. Find more info at calumeteditions.com