Wordplay is back in person.
Remember that beautiful May day in 2019 when thousands of people gathered in Minneapolis for the Loft Literary Center’s first Wordplay book festival? It was so much fun.
The pandemic forced the festival to go virtual in 2020 and 2021, and it paused in 2022 while Arleta Little, the Loft’s executive and artist director, settled into her new position.
Now the festival is back live from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 8, at locations in Minneapolis’ Mill City neighborhood. Wordplay is the largest Minnesota celebration of readers, writers and good books, with this year’s theme being Narrative Power, featuring authors whose books inspire revolution in topics ranging from racial justice and health and wellness to climate change, LGBTQ+ rights, gender equity and equality.
There are 35 authors on the program, representing a wide range of genres, backgrounds and perspectives. Among them are award-winning writers like Alexander Chee, Adrian Matejka and Rebecca Makkai, as well as pop culture connections like Caroline Kepnes, whose work was the basis for the popular Netflix adaptation “You”; Paul Tremblay, who wrote the book that was adapted into the 2023 horror film “Knock at the Cabin”; and Jeff Sharlet, bestselling author of “The Family,” adapted into a Netflix documentary series.
Local authors will be in abundance, including 2023 Minnesota Book Award finalists John Coy, Shannon Gibney, Sun Yung Shin and Diane Wilson, co-producers of “Where We Come From.” Gibney is also celebrating great reviews of her speculative memoir “The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be,” and Sun Yung Shin is a Book Awards nominee in poetry for “The Wex Hex.” We’ll also hear from finalists Antonia Angress and Marcie Rendon.
The festival, designed for the family, includes a children’s stage and a vendor fair offering a wide variety of publications.
Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 at the entrance on event day for those 18 and older. Youth 17 and younger get in free. Tickets are available at loftwordplay.com.
