The Loft advances the power of writers and readers to craft and share stories, to create and celebrate connections, and to build just, life-sustaining communities. The Loft envisions a world where the power of the word liberates minds, deepens relationships, and inspires movements for people and planet.

The Loft was founded in 1974 in a loft space above Marly Rusoff’s bookstore and is led today by Executive and Artistic Director Arleta Little. What started as a grassroots gathering space for poets and writers to share their work and improve their craft grew into one of the nation’s leading independent literary centers. Annually, the Loft offers hundreds of classes, awards, grants for writers, readings and events, major festivals and conferences, and other resources for readers and writers. With core values of creativity, connection, justice, care, courage, and curiosity, The Loft provides programs that serve artists at every stage in their development. Each year the Loft engages more than 5,000 beginning, intermediate, and advanced writers in learning opportunities, hosts more than 250 authors in readings and dialogues that draw more than 15,000 people, connects with more than 200,000 unique visitors through digital resources on our website, collaborates with at least 30 local and national organizations to enrich the literary environment and, through contracts, awards, and grants, pays writers more than $400,000.

Jerome Foundation supports The Loft’s Mentor Series program. Engaging 12 early-career Minnesota-based writers of fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, and children’s literature in a 16-month program, the Mentor Series program offers fellows the opportunity to develop their craft under the mentorship of visiting and local mentors in each genre. Fellows receive a stipend, professional development, including access to the agents and editors through the Loft’s Lit!Series, mentorship, peer-to-peer engagement and support, and regular feedback on their work. All Fellows currently participate in cross-genre craft talks and discussions with both the local and the visiting mentors—even as they gather in small groups to consider and address genre-specific issues. All participants are featured in a public reading—three fellows with two mentors—throughout the course of the program. The Mentor Series program is managed by Marion Gómez.