Write Like Us
Write Like Us will host ten writers in residence during the 2021-2022 academic year, its inaugural season, centering and celebrating the work of BIPOC writers and writing students, fostering literary mentorship and leadership as it builds a platform for shared stories, voices and lived experiences.
Five of the residencies will feature nationally prominent BIPOC authors, one each at five metro-area campuses: Minneapolis College, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Century College, Normandale Community College and North Hennepin Community College. The other five residencies will feature local BIPOC author-mentors who will work throughout the year with BIPOC mentees—students at each campus. Write Like Us hopes to increase BIPOC recruitment, retention and representation in the Associate of Fine Arts (AFA) and creative writing certificate programs—programs with high rates of persistence, graduation and transfer.
Nationally prominent authors will appear for public readings and on-stage interviews in March and April 2022, as well as at non-public events for current students and prospective students from area high schools. Write Like Us author-mentors will visit creative-writing classrooms at each of the five metro-area campuses during fall and spring semesters and will work individually with eight scholarship mentees from each of the five campuses (40 total) throughout the academic year. Each mentor will interview one of the nationally prominent authors in the public on-stage events. Potential mentees will apply in fall 2021 for the eight scholarships available at each campus.
The inaugural year of Write Like Us is funded by a $150,000 Minnesota State Multi-Campus Collaboration grant in support of Minnesota State’s Equity 2030 goals. Equity 2030 aims to close the educational equity gaps across race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status and geographic location by the end of the decade at every Minnesota State college and university.
- To apply for a scholarship: tinyurl.com/writelikeus
- For more information: valerie.deus@minneapolis.edu
For more information, visit the WriteLikeUs webpage.