PLACES TO DONATE
Rain Taxi
We are a literary organization that fosters engagement with innovative writing through programs and publications. Our main vehicle is the award-winning print quarterly Rain Taxi Review of Books and its corollary Online Edition, which each have unique material that connects readers to books of merit that might otherwise get overlooked. With coverage of fiction, poetry, nonfiction, art, graphic novels, translations, and more, Rain Taxi exists for readers and writers, literary publishers of all shapes and sizes, booksellers, educators, and kindred spirits who want books to keep flourishing in a distracted society.
Rain Taxi also organizes the Rain Taxi Reading Series and the annual Twin Cities Book Festival, both of which bring literature to life and provide a public celebration of the literary arts. As a service to our local community, we also maintain the Twin Cities Literary Calendar, which lists all events happening in our region. Rain Taxi also publishes original creative works via chapbooks and broadsides. In all our programs, we are committed to artistic diversity, cultural relevance, and widespread access.
(note I serve as a Board Member here)
Red Bird Chapbooks
Over the years Red Bird has published over 170 chapbooks, a handful of pamphlets, and more than a dozen broadsides. During our reading periods we receive manuscripts from all over the world. Our community of authors, which initially drew from Hamline University's MFA in Creative Writing community, now represents authors residing in the United States, Canada, Europe, the Middle East, and the South Pacific.
Our designers continue to experiment and innovate with book design, ensuring that each Red Bird title is truly unique. We have chapbooks and map books, pamphlet stitch and stab bindings, a star book and a whole host of forms in between. Each new possibility we accept has its own possibilities in terms of form.
(note I have served as a Managing Editor and Editor here)
Loft Literary Center
Founded in 1974 (incorporated in 1975), the Loft is a haven for readers and writers; one of the largest centers of its kind in the country. Our mission is to advance the artistic development of writers, foster a thriving literary community, and inspire a passion for literature.
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.
(note I received a 2019/2020 Mentor Series Fellowship and have also been a Teaching Artist here)