Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference

04/08/2026

Join us for the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference Bemidji, MN June 23-26, 2026
https://www.northwoodswriters.org/application We’re excited to announce, after having to cancel our 2025 conference due to a powerful storm hitting Bemidji on the eve of the event, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference will return to Bemidji State University this summer, with six intensive writing workshops beside beautiful Lake Bemidji. Our faculty so far includes four members of the MNWC25 faculty: Jennifer Foerster (poetry), Toni Jensen (creative nonfiction), Douglas Kearney (poetry), and Joni Tevis (creative nonfiction). The award-winning novelist Debra Magpie Earling (fiction) and the acclaimed poet Layli Long Soldier (poetry) will be joining the faculty this year. Please check our website periodically for updates. We will open registration in March. *The MNWC staff is always refining, adjusting, and revising the conference in order to best serve our community. This year, we have condensed the conference by a couple days. But we’ve worked to maintain the workshop contact hours while creating a more concentrated workshop experience. Whereas last year’s schedule held 10.5 hours in workshop across a six-day conference, this year we’re holding those same 10.5 hours in workshop across a four-day conference. Each faculty member will deliver a craft talk as usual. We’re also planning to run a sixth workshop, allowing us to lower the workshop cap from 12 to 10 participants per workshop, providing each participant more personalized attention. Part of our consideration for this decision for holding the conference from Tuesday through Friday was reducing the number of days away from home, and number of lodging days required, in order to lower financial barriers. We hope to see you this coming June! Please email Mark Spero at [email protected] to let us know if you have any questions.

Application Details The WORKSHOP fee is $825 until April 15 and $900 thereafter. Workshop and Auditor applications open March 15. MNWC Application Poetry, Fiction, or Creative Nonfiction Workshop Application Requirements: All applicants are required to submit five to ten pages of poetry (single-spac...

04/05/2026

Join us for the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference Bemidji, MN June 23-26, 2026
https://www.northwoodswriters.org/application We’re excited to announce, after having to cancel our 2025 conference due to a powerful storm hitting Bemidji on the eve of the event, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference will return to Bemidji State University this summer, with six intensive writing workshops beside beautiful Lake Bemidji. Our faculty so far includes four members of the MNWC25 faculty: Jennifer Foerster (poetry), Toni Jensen (creative nonfiction), Douglas Kearney (poetry), and Joni Tevis (creative nonfiction). The award-winning novelist Debra Magpie Earling (fiction) and the acclaimed poet Layli Long Soldier (poetry) will be joining the faculty this year. Please check our website periodically for updates. We will open registration in March. *The MNWC staff is always refining, adjusting, and revising the conference in order to best serve our community. This year, we have condensed the conference by a couple days. But we’ve worked to maintain the workshop contact hours while creating a more concentrated workshop experience. Whereas last year’s schedule held 10.5 hours in workshop across a six-day conference, this year we’re holding those same 10.5 hours in workshop across a four-day conference. Each faculty member will deliver a craft talk as usual. We’re also planning to run a sixth workshop, allowing us to lower the workshop cap from 12 to 10 participants per workshop, providing each participant more personalized attention. Part of our consideration for this decision for holding the conference from Tuesday through Friday was reducing the number of days away from home, and number of lodging days required, in order to lower financial barriers. We hope to see you this coming June! Please email Mark Spero at [email protected] to let us know if you have any questions.

04/05/2026

Join us for the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference Bemidji, MN June 23-26, 2026* https://www.northwoodswriters.org/application We’re excited to announce, after having to cancel our 2025 conference due to a powerful storm hitting Bemidji on the eve of the event, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference will return to Bemidji State University this summer, with six intensive writing workshops beside beautiful Lake Bemidji. Our faculty so far includes four members of the MNWC25 faculty: Jennifer Foerster (poetry), Toni Jensen (creative nonfiction), Douglas Kearney (poetry), and Joni Tevis (creative nonfiction). The award-winning novelist Debra Magpie Earling (fiction) and the acclaimed poet Layli Long Soldier (poetry) will be joining the faculty this year. Please check our website periodically for updates. We will open registration in March. *The MNWC staff is always refining, adjusting, and revising the conference in order to best serve our community. This year, we have condensed the conference by a couple days. But we’ve worked to maintain the workshop contact hours while creating a more concentrated workshop experience. Whereas last year’s schedule held 10.5 hours in workshop across a six-day conference, this year we’re holding those same 10.5 hours in workshop across a four-day conference. Each faculty member will deliver a craft talk as usual. We’re also planning to run a sixth workshop, allowing us to lower the workshop cap from 12 to 10 participants per workshop, providing each participant more personalized attention. Part of our consideration for this decision for holding the conference from Tuesday through Friday was reducing the number of days away from home, and number of lodging days required, in order to lower financial barriers. We hope to see you this coming June! Please email Mark Spero at [email protected] to let us know if you have any questions.

04/05/2026

Join us for the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference
Bemidji, MN June 23-26, 2026* https://www.northwoodswriters.org/application We’re excited to announce, after having to cancel our 2025 conference due to a powerful storm hitting Bemidji on the eve of the event, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference will return to Bemidji State University this summer, with six intensive writing workshops beside beautiful Lake Bemidji. Our faculty so far includes four members of the MNWC25 faculty: Jennifer Foerster (poetry), Toni Jensen (creative nonfiction), Douglas Kearney (poetry), and Joni Tevis (creative nonfiction). The award-winning novelist Debra Magpie Earling (fiction) and the acclaimed poet Layli Long Soldier (poetry) will be joining the faculty this year. Please check our website periodically for updates. We will open registration in March. *The MNWC staff is always refining, adjusting, and revising the conference in order to best serve our community. This year, we have condensed the conference by a couple days. But we’ve worked to maintain the workshop contact hours while creating a more concentrated workshop experience. Whereas last year’s schedule held 10.5 hours in workshop across a six-day conference, this year we’re holding those same 10.5 hours in workshop across a four-day conference. Each faculty member will deliver a craft talk as usual. We’re also planning to run a sixth workshop, allowing us to lower the workshop cap from 12 to 10 participants per workshop, providing each participant more personalized attention. Part of our consideration for this decision for holding the conference from Tuesday through Friday was reducing the number of days away from home, and number of lodging days required, in order to lower financial barriers. We hope to see you this coming June! Please email Mark Spero at [email protected] to let us know if you have any questions.

03/16/2026

MNWC APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN!

Bemidji, MN June 23-26, 2026*

https://www.northwoodswriters.org/application

We’re excited to announce, after having to cancel our 2025 conference due to a powerful storm hitting Bemidji on the eve of the event, the Minnesota Northwoods Writers Conference will return to Bemidji State University this summer, with six intensive writing workshops beside beautiful Lake Bemidji. Our faculty so far includes four members of the MNWC25 faculty: Jennifer Foerster (poetry), Toni Jensen (creative nonfiction), Douglas Kearney (poetry), and Joni Tevis (creative nonfiction). The award-winning novelist Debra Magpie Earling (fiction) and the acclaimed poet Layli Long Soldier (poetry) will be joining the faculty this year. Please check our website periodically for updates. We will open registration in March.

*The MNWC staff is always refining, adjusting, and revising the conference in order to best serve our community. This year, we have condensed the conference by a couple days. But we’ve worked to maintain the workshop contact hours while creating a more concentrated workshop experience. Whereas last year’s schedule held 10.5 hours in workshop across a six-day conference, this year we’re holding those same 10.5 hours in workshop across a four-day conference. Each faculty member will deliver a craft talk as usual. We’re also planning to run a sixth workshop, allowing us to lower the workshop cap from 12 to 10 participants per workshop, providing each participant more personalized attention. Part of our consideration for this decision for holding the conference from Tuesday through Friday was reducing the number of days away from home, and number of lodging days required, in order to lower financial barriers. We hope to see you this coming June!

Please email Mark Spero at [email protected] to let us know if you have any questions.

10/22/2025

We were so happy to have been with many of you at our first few New Moon Craft talks. Our series runs through December and there's still time to register if you haven't already! Can't make it to all the scheduled events? Recordings will be posted after the series is finished.

Tomorrow evening’s talk at 6pm CT with Jennifer Foerster called the Poetics of Listening: A Generative Workshop will be a delight! Join us!

https://mnscu.rschooltoday.com/.../costop.../class_id/302580

08/19/2025

We were so happy to have been with many of you at our first few New Moon Craft talks. Our series runs through December and there's still time to register if you haven't already! Can't make it to all the scheduled events? Recordings will be posted after the series is finished!

Our second talk is this Thursday, August 21st, at 6pm CT. Benjamin Percy will join us to present Defamiliarization: Writing Across Forms, Breaking Rules, Ignoring Boundaries. We can't wait to learn and write with you and Benjamin.

https://mnscu.rschooltoday.com/.../costop.../class_id/302580

07/15/2025

Join us for an incredible line up of writers July 24-December 16. Registration is live! https://mnscu.rschooltoday.com/public/costoption/class_id/302580

07/12/2025

Wind, nor fire, nor flood can stop us from writing together! Stay tuned for registration details, faculty workshop information, and a detailed schedule early next week. We're excited to announce the New Moon Craft Talk Series starting July 24th-December 16.

06/22/2025

Good Morning Everyone,
Sara here. Just wanting to make a post to thank you for the outpouring of understanding and grace you’ve all extended to Sean, Mat, and I and staff and the love you’ve been sending to the Bemidji community in the last day. We are ok. It is going to take Bemidji time to heal. We are so grateful for you and this community. We aren’t able to respond to individual posts, texts, dms, but please know we’re seeing them and feeling their warmth. We are moving with the pace of the city and campus right now. We are gutted to have had to cancel. That decision was confirmed yesterday evening when Beltrami County issued a State of Emergency for the area allowing for outside resources to come in and help get the community back online. Again, we are so grateful for you. We will send an email update to you as we are able to.

Together in our craft,
Sara