Salli receives mentorship award

Donna Salli, adjunct instructor of English at Central Lakes College, Brainerd and Staples, has received a mentorship award from The Loft in the Twin Cities.

This honor will enable Salli to more fully pursue her literary ambitions.

Salli will receive a year of advanced criticism of her work via craft seminars and one-on-one conferences. She will have many career development opportunities, including the reading of her work at The Loft.

Salli will read with mentor Agha Shahid Ali at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 13. Ali is the author of several collections of poetry, including "The Country Without a Post Office," "The Half-Inch Himalayas" and "A Nostalgist's Map of America." He teaches creative writing at Warren Wilson College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the University of Utah.

Salli is from Wakefield, Mich., and has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master's degree in poetry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She has taught at CLC, Concordia College in Moorhead, and in an enrichment program for American and Canadian high school students in Cambridge, England.

She has published poetry and essays and is working on a collaborative poetry manuscript with her sister, Doreen Salli, titled "Letters to a Sister."