Mentor Series 2027 - Application for Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Poetry, and Children's Literature

The Loft Literary Center invites Minnesota early career poets, fiction, creative nonfiction, and children's and young adult literature writers to apply to the 2027 Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose. This program offers advanced criticism and professional development opportunities to twelve writers: three each in the genres of poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, and children's and young adult literature.  

THE PROGRAM 

Twelve early career writers are selected through a competitive judging process to work intensively with eight nationally acclaimed writers of prose and poetry. The four local mentors spend an extended period of time working with the entire group and conduct genre-specific workshops and individual conferences with the three writers in their genres. The four visiting mentors come in for intensive weekends of craft seminars with the full group and individual manuscript conferences with the writers in their genre. All participants are featured in a public reading—three fellows with two mentors—throughout the course of the program. 

Eligibility  

• Work must be in the genres of fiction, creative nonfiction, children's literature, or poetry. Creative nonfiction may include memoir, personal essay, literary journalism, and biography. It does not include reportage, blogs, or opinion pieces.
• You may apply in more than one genre, but can only win in one. If you are applying in more than one genre, you must submit different work samples for each application.
• You must be a resident of Minnesota for a minimum of 12 months on the date of your application, which means you filed US federal taxes as a resident of Minnesota for 2025.
• You must not have published (traditional or self-published) more than one book in any genre.
• You may submit work previously published in magazines, journals, or anthologies.
• Artists who have been in the field for longer than 10 years (excluding any time in a degree-granting program or time away from working as an artist due to circumstances–e.g., having children, caring for family members, long-term illness, etc.) are not eligible, even if they feel under-recognized. For more information, please see the Jerome Foundation's definition of an early career artist (https://www.jeromefdn.org/defining-early-career-emerging-artists). If you have artistic achievements (e.g. publications, fellowships, grant awards, etc.) preceding November 2016 and have taken time off from working as an artist at some point since earning these achievements to still qualify as an early career artist, please explain this gap(s) in more detail in your one paragraph Artistic Bio.
• You must not be an enrolled part-time or full-time student in a degree-granting program (including K-12, college, graduate or post-graduate studies) at the time of the application and/or during the Mentor Series fellowship period.
• If you are full-time tenured faculty at any college, university or institution of higher learning, you are not eligible.
• Loft Mentor Series alumni are ineligible. 
• Board and staff members of the Loft Literary Center and/or the Jerome Foundation are ineligible.

Fellows are selected on the basis of the strength of their manuscripts and project plans and will receive an award of $2,800 that may be used to defray the potential costs of program participation (transportation, book purchases, child care, etc.). Fellows are required to prepare for and attend all program-related meetings, seminars, readings, workshops, manuscript conferences, and social activities. These activities are primarily in-person at the Loft Literary Center, with some virtual options. At least four activities throughout the year will take place during regular business hours. 

All program dates are tentative and subject to change. Orientation for fellows is currently scheduled for mid-January of 2027.

If you have questions about eligibility, please send inquiries to awards@loft.org, or call 612-215-2593. More information is available on our website: www.loft.org. The last day to send an inquiry for it to be resolved before the application deadline is Nov. 12, 2026.

Judging Process  

The two mentors in each genre will confer and select three winners and two honorable mentions.

 DEADLINE: 

• All entries must be submitted by November 16, 2026 by 11:59 PM Central Time. Late applications will not be accepted. 
• Winners will be notified by the beginning of January 2027 by phone. All other applicants will receive an email. 

The Loft Mentor Series in Poetry and Creative Prose is made possible through the support of the Jerome Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Loft Friends. 

The Mentor Series application process requires applicants to complete an eligibility quiz (below) prior to gaining access to the application. This is meant to avoid ineligible artists investing valuable time and energy in completing an application. Loft staff is also available by email and phone to answer questions and help determine eligibility.