Hello! My name is Marianne Manzler, and thanks to the Minnesota State Arts Board, I am facilitating a FREE 4-week writing workshop for BIPOC teens in May (with additional drop in meetings during the summer and fall) who want to build online and in-person connections with peers as well as participate in occasional special projects and/or events. There’s an optional public sharing component and option to submit work produced in the workshop in a published anthology. Each session will have readings, generative writing prompts and time to write, discussion, and more. Let's create together! Free for all youth participants in Minnesota!

Drop-in meetings take place on Tuesday nights at 5:00-6:30 PM CT in person (South Minneapolis and St. Paul locations) + hybrid online option 

Meeting Dates: 

• May 6

• May 13

• May 20

• May 27 

• July 8 

• Sept 9 

• Dec 9: Final Reading

Feel free to drop in for one or for the entire series! Please sign up or learn more by emailing info@mariannemanzler.com.

Workshop Outcomes

• Build confidence in writing and share the joy of storytelling and creating art in community

• Produce at least one piece of new written work

• Give and receive feedback about each other's work

• Compile student writing into a published anthology

• Participate in an in-person reading on December 9, 2025

Once you have registered, you will receive a confirmation email with workshop location and information within 48 hours.

Register here!

About the Workshop Leader: Marianne M. Manzler is a writer, educator, and editor. Raised in Cincinnati, she is the graduate of The Ohio State University and University of Washington, where she received her MFA in Creative Writing–Prose, held the Grace Milliman Pollock Fellowship, and her thesis won UW’s Eugene Van Buren Award. There, she taught writing to youth and undergraduate students. She has also worked in the book publishing industry in both editorial and marketing departments. She manages the education program at The Loft Literary Center, where she supports her fellow storytellers and readers in reaching their artistic endeavors. She hopes to create a space where language, connection, and community can thrive. She has over ten years of experience in managing and facilitating literary arts classes and programs for youth and adults, most recently as the Director of Youth and Community Programs at Lighthouse Writer's Workshop, Educator at Prodigy Ventures, and Founding English and Humanities instructor at The CUBE High School in Denver, Colorado.

Her work can be found in Best American Essays 2022, Fourth Genre, The Seventh Wave, 5280, and elsewhere, and she has received support from Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Sundress Publications, Anderson Center, and Vermont Studio Center. Most recently, she is a 2025 recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board grant and a 2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship Finalist in Literature-Prose. Within the past decade, she has served as a Fulbright scholar, AmeriCorps member, and Urban Leaders Policy Fellow. She is an Editor for The Rumpus column We Are More and a reader at Quarterly West and The Offing. She hosts the podcast series Mumu Stories about creativity, illness, and the hustle of being a writer.

Welcome to the Loft's Summer Youth program at Open Book! Join us for a week of writing, creativity, and exploration!

In this multigenre class, we’ll use outdoor spaces to inspire essays, poetry, and prose. The creative process is shaped by environment, so we'll use Minneapolis as our muse. We’ll write on-site at iconic locations like the Stone Arch Bridge, Mill City Museum and Ruins, the Guthrie Theater, the Minneapolis Central Library, and City Hall. Each setting offers unique inspiration, from riverfront serenity to urban energy.

Our days will begin at the Loft Literary Center before we venture out for daily walking or metro trips.

As part of class, students will read works by established writers who incorporate nature and wildlife, analyzing how these elements shape deeper themes. Through in-class exercises and discussions, students will create their own work, integrating the natural world into personal narratives.

By the end of the week, students will have a portfolio of work reflecting their connection to nature and place. Join us for a dynamic week of creativity and community!

Comfortable shoes and weather-appropriate gear are essential, as we’ll write rain or shine.

Whether you're working on a book-length memoir or a series of essays, this class will guide you from raw memory or idea to a polished piece in twelve weeks. We'll move through a structured progression of writing exercises and assignments inspired by six weekly craft talks. Topics will include: point of view, voice, scene, character, sensory detail, setting, and revision.

The second half of the course is given over to exhaustive workshopping, during which each student will have the opportunity to showcase their work. This is an intensive class for serious writers, but students should expect a supportive, inclusive, anti-racist, and energetic virtual experience. If you cannot commit yourself to the full twelve-week plan, please reconsider whether this is the right class for you, and explore other Loft class options. Please come to class prepared to engage in writing, workshopping, and conversation on craft.

Class is appropriate for those hoping to generate new work, as well as those who want to bring finished work in to revise. If the latter describes you, please be willing to disassemble and reimagine the manuscript you plan to bring to the table later this winter. For the purposes of completing a manuscript for this class, in our allotted time together, students should aim to write a minimum of 1,000 words per week.