Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses at the Loft in protest of Ayatollah Khomeini's sentence of death on Rushdie. The reading was also a response from the Twin Cities Artistic Community Ad Hoc Committee in Protest of Censorship and Intimidation. In 1993, the Loft hosted a week-long series of events celebrating freedom of expression that coincided with National Banned Books Week. The events included a dialogue with Kathy Acker, Amiri Baraka, and Nat Hentoff; a reading and forum with Lorrie Moore and Mona Simpson; free speech read-ins; and performance art with J. Otis Powell and Patrick Scully at the Rogue Nightclub. 2000–present In 1999, the Loft joined with Minnesota Center for Book Arts and publisher Milkweed Editions to build the nonprofit literary and book arts center Open Book, which opened in May 2000 and is the current home of the Loft. This move was followed by the launch of the Loft Equilibrium Spoken Word Series in 2002, which was recognized with the Minnesota Nonprofit Anti-Racism Initiative Award. In 2010, the Loft celebrated its 35th anniversary with the publication release of Views from the Loft: A Portable Writer's Workshop and the launch of its online education program. The Loft now has an annual budget of over $2.4 million, and through contracts, awards, and grants pays writers more than $400,000 each year. The Loft annually serves thousands of writers by offering hundreds of classes, numerous fellowships, readings from award-winning authors, and literary resources such as a small library, writing studios, and a book club room. The Loft has also launched two major annual events, Wordplay—an annual book festival for readers, and Wordsmith—an annual conference for writers. Collaborators Thousands of writers both established and emerging have read, taught, mentored, and judged contests at the Loft since 1975. Their ranks include Margaret Atwood, Charles Baxter, Robert Bly, Billy Collins, Bernard Cooper, Toi Derricotte, Junot Diaz, Kate DiCamillo, Rita Dove, Louise Erdrich, Vince Flynn, Nikki Giovanni, Patricia Hampl, John Irving, Garrison Keillor, Stanley Kunitz, Mary Oliver, Michael Ondaatje, Tracy K. Smith, Patricia Smith, Quincy Troupe, and Li-Young Lee, among others. Records Records of the Loft Literary Center are housed at the Minnesota Historical Society and available for research use. They include bylaws and statement of purpose, minutes, correspondence, financial information, annual reports, information on classes and readings, class proposals, and membership data, among other files. References External links The Loft Literary Center Creative writing programs Non-profit organizations