Featuring Robin Wall Kimmerer

2025 Book Lovers Ball

Milkweed Editions' Annual Fundraising Gala

Thursday, October 9, 2025
Nicollet Island Pavillion
40 Power Street | Minneapolis, MN 55401

5:30 p.m. Reception
6:30 p.m. Dinner & program
8:30 p.m. Post-program social

Please join us Thursday, October 9, for the 2025 Book Lovers Ball, Milkweed Editions’ signature fundraising gala. Join guest speaker Robin Wall Kimmerer and 300 fellow book lovers at Nicollet Island Pavilion in Minneapolis to celebrate and raise funds for transformative literature. Tickets will sell quickly—to secure yours, reserve them today!

Featuring

Robin Wall Kimmerer, mother, scientist, decorated professor, enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and author of Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants.

“I give daily thanks for Robin Wall Kimmerer for being a font of endless knowledge, both mental and spiritual.” —Richard Powers, The New York Times

Join fellow book lovers for a social hour, pop-up bookstore, seated dinner, inspiring program, live auction, and post-program reception with the author—all in celebration and support of transformative books.

Images by Molly Miles of the 2024 Book Lovers Ball with Chris La Tray, author of Becoming Little Shell. Thank you to last year’s sponsors and attendees!

  • Live auction

    Check back for the release of our 2025 Book Lovers Ball Auction Items.

    Can’t make the event but still want to help? 

    Your donation supports Milkweed’s mission to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it. Click the button below or contact Madi McLaughlin, madi_mclaughlin@milkweed.org, (612) 215-2559.

    Environmentally conscious

    Milkweed is committed to ecological stewardship. In addition to publishing books that explore our relationship with the more-than-human world, we strive to use the most sustainable production practices and to reduce the impact of our operations in the environment.

    We are working closely with our partners to plan and execute a Book Lovers Ball that minimizes waste and reduces carbon emissions by encouraging carpooling, public transport, and EV use; eliminating single-use items; composting or recycling all event waste and collateral; using sustainable and reusable materials in all decor; and utilizing seasonal and locally grown food.

    Hosted by the Milkweed Editions Board of Directors

    Heather Anfang | Dan Cramer | Jack Dempsey | Nima Desai | Jonathan Gaw
    Shelly Gill Murray | Sheila Glancy Letscher | Chuck Knapp | Leah Lamon | Paulita LaPlante Stephanie Matz | Deepinder Mayell | Karine Moe | Shawn Monaghan | Sally Narey
    Megan O’Hara | Daniel Slager, Publisher & CEO | Stephen Spencer | Sarah Stoesz
    Molly Sullivan | Ian Taylor Jr. | Deanna Thompson | Betsy Van Hecke | Maryam Marne Zafar

    Sponsors

    Thank you to our sponsors and partners for investing in writers, readers, and transformative books.

    Become a Milkweed Sponsor

    Sponsor Milkweed Editions’ mission to identify, nurture, and publish transformative literature, and build an engaged community around it. When you become a sponsor, you become part of the circle of interdependency that makes our work possible.

    Book Lovers Ball Archive

    2024 — featuring Chris La Tray
    2023 — featuring Elizabeth Rush
    2022 — featuring Ada Limón, Michael Bazzett, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Chris Martin, JJJJJerome Ellis, Hannah Emerson, and Adam Wolfond
    2021 — featuring Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Diane Wilson, and Victoria Chang
    2020 (virtual) — featuring Robin Wall Kimmerer, Aimee Nezhukumatathil, Margaret Renkl, Elizabeth Rush, and Su Hwang
    2019 — featuring Margaret Renkl
    2018 — featuring Michael Bazzet
    2017 — featuring Amy & Dave Freeman
    2016 — featuring Chris Dombrowski
    2015 — featuring Michael Bazzett, Beth Dooley, Parneshia Jones, Miriam Karmel, Patricia Kirkpatrick, James Lenfestey, Brian Laidlaw, Shawn Otto, John Reimringer, Danielle Sosin, William Souder, Faith Sullivan, and Katrina Vandenberg
    2014 — featuring Shawn Otto
    2013 — featuring Robin Wall Kimmerer
    2012 — featuring David Rhodes
    2011 — featuring David Gessner
    2010 — featuring Larry Watson, Jessica Anderson, and John Reimringer
    2009 — tribute to Bill Holm, featuring David Rhodes and James Lenfestey
    2008 — featuring Bill Holm and Karsten Heuer
    2007 — featuring Deborah Keenan, Matthew Eck, Faith Sullivan, and Seth Kantner
    2006 — featuring James Armstrong, Natasha Friend, David Petersen, and Bapsi Sidhwa
    2005 — featuring Jay Walljasper, Pattiann Rogers, Seth Kantner, and Natasha Friend