Under the Same Prairie Sky: Reshaping Social Landscapes Through Storytelling and Design with Emily Hunt Turner and Melanie Hoffert

Social entrepreneur Emily Hunt Turner and award-winning author Melanie Hoffert share stories from their lives, careers, family and evolving sense of belonging. Raised in rural North Dakota, they explore what it means to leave, return, belong, create, and build lives —and a world— beyond what we inherited. The evening is especially for those interested in writing, social impact and uplifting LGBTQIA2S+ experiences.

Emily Hunt Turner is a social entrepreneur with a background in architecture, law, and public policy. She is the Founder of All Square—a nonprofit social enterprise that invests in individuals impacted by mass incarceration—which was named by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 100 Places in the World. Prior to All Square, Emily spent five years as a federal attorney for the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) working on housing segregation and barriers to housing for those returning home from prison. Emily’s next social venture is entitled Retrofit, an innovative blueprint for redesigning how nonprofits are powered. She can be found at: emilyhuntturner.com

Melanie Hoffert is the author of Prairie Silence which won the Minnesota Book. She grew up on a farm in North Dakota, where she spent her childhood wandering gravel roads. Her work has been published in several literary journals and she holds an MFA in creative writing from Hamline University. She is the Chief Marketing Officer at the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation and currently splits her time between her home in Minneapolis and her cabin in rural Minnesota. She is finishing a memoir called Old Mom. She can be found at: www.melaniehoffert.com

MSUM is committed to creating an inclusive and accessible event. If you need a reasonable accommodation to attend this event, please contact Chuck Eade at Charles.Eade@mnstate.edu to discuss further. You will be contacted individually to discuss your request.

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