Write Like Us Program Presents: Author Brit Bennett at Anoka-Ramsey

November 08, 2021

Anoka-Ramsey Community College welcomes author Brit Bennett for a reading and on-stage interview Thursday, April 21, 2022 at 2pm. Bennett was named a 5 Under 35 honoree by the National Book Foundation and is the author of The Vanishing Half.

Event Information

Minnesota State Write Like Us Presents Brit Bennett
Thursday, April 21, 2022 | 2 pm
Anoka-Ramsey Community College, Coon Rapids Campus
Performing Arts Center
11200 Mississippi Blvd NW
Coon Rapids, MN 55433

Bennett's appearance at Anoka-Ramsey is one of five public readings and interviews at Twin Cities metro area community colleges in March and April 2022. Events are made possible through Minnesota State Write Like Us, a program centering and celebrating the work of BIPOC writers and writing students as it fosters literary mentorship and leadership, building a platform for shared stories, voices, and lived experiences.

Hanif Abdurraquib, Kiese Laymon, Tommy Orange, and Tracy K. Smith will also appear for public readings and on-stage interviews at Minneapolis College, North Hennepin Community College, Normandale Community College and Century College. Complete bios, photos, and dates of the public appearances are available at MinnState.edu/WriteLikeUs.

In addition to these author visits, five local BIPOC author-mentors will award 40 mentee fellowships to BIPOC creative writing students from the five campuses for the 2021-22 academic year. Local author-mentors are Merle Geode, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Rosetta Peters, Sagirah Shahid, and Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay (bios and photos available at MinnState.edu/WriteLikeUs). During their residencies, the mentors will visit creative-writing classrooms at each of the five campuses, work closely with their eight selected student mentees, and interview one of the nationally prominent authors in the live, on-stage events. Students awarded mentee fellowships will be announced in November.

By providing BIPOC mentees with models of success that look like them, Minnesota State Write Like Us hopes to recruit, retain, and represent BIPOC students in our AFA and other creative writing programs, with their high rates of persistence, graduation, and transfer.

The inaugural year of Minnesota State Write Like Us is funded by a $150,000 Minnesota State Multi-Campus Collaboration grant in support of Minnesota State’s Equity 2030 goals. Minnesota State includes thirty community and technical colleges and seven state universities serving approximately 340,000 students. It is the third-largest system of two-year colleges and four-year universities in the United States. 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.

Minnesota State Write Like Us follows Minnesota State guidance and mandates regarding COVID-19 protocol.