In the spring, the Loft Literary Center experimented with online writing classes, offering two pilot classes designed to accommodate people who don't live in the Cities or whose lives don't fit the Loft's schedule.

Both sold out, and both got enthusiastic reviews.

Now the program has swelled to 11 classes -- short story, young adult fiction, poetry, and others, including repeats of those first successful two.

Online classes mean, of course, that you no longer have to drive downtown, find a parking place and possibly miss your dinner. (They also mean you don't get to wander through the lovely brick-walled Open Book building, poke your head into the Center for Book Arts, or grab a coffee at the little cafe. But convenience trumps!)

Registration is open, and classes start Sept. 12. Most cost between $300 and $400. For more information, go here: www.loft.org/classes-at-the-loft-literary-center/online-classes

Also ...

• "The Power and The Glory," a novel by William C. Hammond of Minneapolis, will be published in October by the U.S. Naval Institute. It is the third in Hammond's historical series, following "A Matter of Honor," and "For Love of Country."

• St. Paul poet James Moore will read and sign copies of his latest collection, "Invisible Strings," at 2 p.m. Sept. 12 at Waverly Gardens in North Oaks. Books are available, at a discount, in advance from Waverly Gardens resident Bob Sonkowsky. He's at 651-762-6572.

• "A Storied Wilderness: Rewilding the Apostle Islands," by James W. Feldman, has been published by the University of Washington Press. The book traces the history of the 22 Lake Superior islands off of Northern Wisconsin that are now known, collectively, as the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore but were at one time privately owned and logged, settled and quarried.

• "The Sacking of Visby," by Birgitta Nelson of Minneapolis, has been published by Re-Imagined Press. Nelson grew up in Sweden and her young-adult book is set in Sweden in the 1300s.

• "Robert Bly in This World," a collection of essays and lectures gathered from the 2009 Robert Bly conference at the University of Minnesota, has been published by the University of Minnesota Libraries. It was edited by Thomas R. Smith and James Lenfestey and includes a DVD of the Bly documentary "A Man Writes to a Part of Himself."