Twelve writers have been chosen from hundreds of applicants for the Loft Mentor Series. The 12 winners will spend a year working with award-winning established writers in their chosen field.
Here are the winners:
Nonfiction
Mentors Allison Adelle Hedge Coke and Laura Flynn have chosen Stephanie Chrismon, Lorissa Gottschalk, Erin Sharkey and Michael Torres.
Chrismon, who has an MFA from Hamline University, writes urban and dystopian fantasies that explore race, sexuality, family and social justice.
Gottschalk also has an MFA from Hamline University. She is a poet and writer who explores nature, grief, death and mystery is life; she has studied with Philip Lopate and Patricia Hampl and her work has appeared in Water-Stone Review and other publications.
Sharkey also has an MFA from Hamline University (I am seeing a trend here). She is the co-founder of Free Black Dirt, an artist collective, and has served as production manager for the Heart of the Beast Mayday parade.
Torres teaches creative writing, has been a graffiti artist, and has written for Paper Darts and other publications.
Poetry
Mentors Abdul Ali and Sun Yung Shin have chosen Anthony Ceballos, Elizabeth Meyers, Chavonn Shen and Elizabeth Tannen.
Ceballos has a BFA from Hamline University, which awarded him the George Henry Bridgeman Poetry Award. His work has appeared in The Fulcrum and Yellow Medicine Review.
Meyers grew up in Wisconsin, graduated from Northland College in Ashland, Wis., and writes poetry and fiction about rural life.
Shen is a graduate of Carleton College who dreams of visiting every inhabitable continent.
Tannen, a former producer for NPR's All Things Considered, has an MFA from the University of New Mexico and teaches at Anoka Ramsey Community College. She has written for Salon,The Rumpus, and many other places.
Fiction
Mentors Ayana Mathis and Julie Schumacher have chosen Angela Ajayi, Trisha Collopy, Cole Asong Nfonoyim-Hara and Michele Valenti.
Ajayi has been both a book editor and a writer. Her work has appeared in Wild River Review, Star Tribune (her first book review will run soon!) and Afroeuropa.
Collopy is a copy editor at the Star Tribune, where she also reviews books. She is working on her MFA from Hamline and has written for the Washington Post, Queer and Celtic, and many other publications.
Nfonoyim-Hara was born in the Dominican Republic, grew up in New York City and has an MSc from the University of Oxford in England. Her first short story is forthcoming from Joyland Magazine.
Valenti holds an MFA from Minnesota State University at Moorhead. He has worked as a journalist and has published his work in Weber: The Contemporary West.
The Loft Mentor Series is supported by the Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the members of the Loft.
