Arleta Little is a poet, writer, and culture worker who has made good trouble for nearly 30 years in nonprofit organizations and philanthropy in Minnesota. Arleta’s latest book of poetry, Black Swallowtail, pairs her poetry with paintings by visual artist Ta-coumba T. Aiken. Her poems and essays have appeared in multiple journals and publications including We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World (UMN Press), Blues Vision: African American Writing From Minnesota (MNHS Press), Water-Stone Review, Calyx, and more. She is a co- author along with Josie Johnson and Carolyn Holbrook of Hope in the Struggle: A Memoir (UMN Press). Arleta was the first Executive Director of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature and co-founder of the influential Givens Black Writers Retreat program. She currently serves as the Executive & Artistic Director for the Loft in Minneapolis, serving literary creatives, culture bearers, and changemakers.

Along with her professional titles, Arleta is a poet and writer. Her essay “Life and Death in the North Star State,” published in Water-Stone Review Vol. 24, was nominated for a 2022 Pushcart Prize. Her work is included in We Are Meant to Rise: Voices for Justice from Minneapolis to the World; This Was 2020: Minnesotans Write About Pandemics and Social Justice in a Historic Year; and Blues Vision: African American Writing From Minnesota. She also collaborated on writing and publishing Josie R. Johnson’s memoir, Hope in the Struggle.