Teaching at the Loft

For 35 years, the Loft has been the place where “writers learn from other writers.” The Loft offers hundreds of classes, workshops, retreats and writing festivals at its home at Open Book and at libraries throughout the west metro through our partnership with Hennepin County Library.  Thousands of people of all ages, backgrounds and interests enroll each year.

Loft teaching artists are key to fulfilling our mission of supporting the artistic development of writers and fostering a writing community.

The Loft’s education program features offerings in poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, children’s literature and young adult literature. We also invite course proposals for screenwriting, blogging, spoken word, graphic and comic book storytelling, zines, magazine writing, and humor writing, among many others. Courses may range from general overviews of a genre (e.g., Fiction for Beginners), to a specific focus (e.g., Narrative Poetry), to topical themes (e.g., Essays on Nature). Courses may also focus on categories of a genre, e.g., mystery, thriller, and science fiction. In addition to teaching the art of writing, the Loft also provides offerings on the business of publishing, the realities of the writing life, and classes and workshops designed to start and sustain the writing process.

Current opportunities and guidelines are listed below.

If you have questions about classes for adults, please contact Brian Malloy at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If you have questions about classes for children and teens, please contact Jen Dodgson at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

If you have questions about teaching online, please contact Kurtis Scaletta at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Request for Summer Adult Class Proposals

The Loft Literary Center invites class proposals for its summer adult classes. Deadline is December 16, 2011.

Download the summer adult proposal form

Request for Online Class Proposals

The Loft Literary Center invites class proposals for its summer online classes. Deadline is December 16, 2011.

Download the call for proposals

Download the course proposal template

Who can teach online for the Loft?
Our chief criterion for online teaching artists is the same as our criterion for face-to-face classes: we’re looking for excellent writers who are passionate about teaching! For the specific demands of teaching online, we will also be looking for teaching artists who have experience in facilitating community and discussion in an online environment. Trainings on using the Loft’s learning management system and engaging students online will be offered periodically at Open Book in Minneapolis.

We will consider proposals from teaching artists whether or not they have taught for the Loft before, and whether or not they live in the Twin Cities.

Pros and Cons of Teaching Online
The benefits to teaching online are evident to many–-it saves you the hassle of driving and parking, and can be scheduled more easily around your other obligations. It opens your class up to a much wider audience—those who have always wanted to participate in Loft writing classes but lived too far away, those could not make time for it, and those who are reluctant to bring their writing to a face-to-face workshop. Teaching online provides new opportunities for interaction and collaboration with emerging writers.

You should be aware that teaching online may be time consuming, especially at first, when you are learning the technology and developing your online resources. We will try to make some of this more efficient. Of course teaching online also brings risks of technical issues that can affect you and your students. Technical support is available, but you may not be able to find immediate solutions to every problem. The biggest challenge is to create the same community online that the Loft is famous for in its face-to-face classes. It’s easy for students in an online class to feel disconnected from their teacher and from one another, so it takes a special commitment by the teaching artist to engage and involve students in discussions and activities.

How it Works

If your class is approved, you will be paid $15.50 per student per week of your online class. Most classes will have a minimum of ten students to proceed and a maximum of twenty.

The Loft uses an open-source learning management system called Moodle. Using Moodle you can upload or develop content, lead discussion forums and live chats, and privately read and review documents from students. You can also provide wikis, glossaries, and other tools as you see fit. The Loft will provide you with a course website after your course is approved so you can begin developing your class. Note that you will develop your site before the minimum number of students have enrolled, and that classes not meeting the minimum enrollment standard will be canceled. If your class is canceled due to low enrollment, your site will still be available for future classes. You are strongly encouraged to market your class through your own blog and social networks.

The Loft provides free training to all teaching artists interested in teaching online. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to inquire about upcoming trainings or online resources.

If your online class proposal is approved and confirmed, we do ask that you host all of your activities in the Loft’s Moodle site so that we can maintain quality control and provide technical support to students. You may, of course, link to external videos, blogs, or other resources they may find helpful, but we ask that you do not use any other websites or online tools to support chats, discussions, or critique and feedback without discussing it first with the program manager.

You’re in charge of your site. You will develop content and be the first line of contact with students, just as in face-to-face classes. That doesn’t mean you’re all alone---you can contact the online program manager for assistance or advice at any time.

You will also own and control your intellectual property unless the Loft commissions you to create a course. In that case, we will have a separate contract for developing the material and granting us the license to use it, and of course you’ll be the first in line to teach that course.

What’s next

Review the call for proposals and complete the course proposal template (below). Feel free to submit a short query to the online program manager This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it before you complete the proposal to make sure your class fits with the Loft’s plans for the online program at this time.

Download the call for proposals

Download the course proposal template