Ignite Rural: Where Are They Now? w/ Leticia Snow
Ignite Rural: Where Are They Now? is a storytelling series featuring alumni of the Ignite Rural Artist Residency, capturing a snapshot in time of what they’ve been up to since completing their residency. Leticia’s interview was conducted in Autumn 2025.
Leticia Snow participated in the 2022-2023 Ignite Rural Artist Residency program which supported her creative practice of writing.
When asked about her time since Ignite Rural at Department of Public Transformation, Leticia describes her journey as a slow building of confidence, a return to the creative life she once set aside and is now reclaiming. The residency gave Leticia the space to revisit past dreams. “It really ignited my passions from when I was younger,” she says. Even when opportunities didn’t always land, she says she always finds herself circling back, trying again, and trusting that the work will meet her when the time is right.
In the time since Ignite Rural, Leticia has steadily deepened her writing practice. Through the Mirrors and Windows Fellowship at the Loft Literary Center, Leticia workshopped her children’s book alongside other writers, learning both new skills and the long arc of publishing. What began as a single idea has grown into a series, two or three books, she now knows, to fully realize the world she’s been building. Children’s books, she laughs, are far more complex than they seem. “It’s a process. It’s long-term.” Still, she keeps going.
At the Loft Literary Center, she was also invited into a yearlong nonfiction program on a scholarship, receiving $8,000 to develop her memoir. Over the course of the program, she drafted thirteen chapters and built long-lasting relationships with a cohort of women writers across Minnesota and beyond. The work strengthened her skills in reflective writing and reminded her that storytelling can be something that’s both personal and communal. A way of sharing your own life while holding space for others.
Professionally, Leticia moved through a season of transition. She stepped into social services, first moving and working in northern Minnesota as a case manager supporting families in crisis and helping reuniting efforts. The work was meaningful but the location was isolating. Later, she relocated to the Twin Cities, where she now creates safety plans for families. The shift from being a visible arts and civic leader in St. Peter to a more behind the scenes role was a bit disorienting. “For a while, I didn’t feel part of anything,” she reflects. Yet even in that space, Leticia never stopped listening for where she could join community.
Outside of work and art, running has been her anchor. She completed her first 100-mile ultra marathon last April at the Potawatomi Trail in Pekin, Illinois. She is hoping to surpass that distance as she returns for the 150-mile distance April 9. A steady, rhythmic reminder to stay grounded and keep going. When asked about what advice she’d offer to others, it’s simple and hard-earned: don’t walk away from your dreams. “It’s never too late,” she says. Start with what you know. Keep moving. Build community. Try, even if you’re afraid, because if you don’t try, you’ll never know.
LETICIA’S BIO
Born and raised in the desert southwest of New Mexico, Leticia ventured to the Midwest in 1997 to attend the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism. After college, she worked as an associate producer for a cable television newscast but felt the job lacked a sense of purpose. She spent a few years with the Girl Scout Council in Minneapolis, working in community youth outreach and communications. She has served as an administrative assistant at various non-profits, the Committee Against Domestic Abuse (CADA), and Partners for Housing, which provided her with a new lens for understanding different populations and backgrounds. Those opportunities, coupled with her lived experience of trauma and intimate partner violence, led her to pursue a Master’s in Human Services Forensic Behavioral from Concordia University, 25 years after earning her bachelor’s degree. She started a new career as a social worker in child protection in the Iron Range in April 2024, where she worked as an ongoing case manager in Hibbing, Minn. Previously, she worked as an Assistant Library Supervisor at the Saint Peter Public Library in Saint Peter, Minn., where she oversaw the teen and young adult programming and materials. She also freelanced for the Mankato Free Press and Mankato Magazine, wrote two children's books as a contract author for Capstone Publishing, and contributed to pebblego.com, an educational website for youth. After completing the Ignite Rural at-home artist residency program with the Department of Public Transformation in 2023, she began working on her first children’s book draft, based on one of my father’s childhood bedtime stories, with hopes of getting it published. In 2024, she began writing her memoir as part of the Loft Literary Center’s Yearlong Writing Project and working on picture books as a part of the Mirrors and Windows Fellowship. Last year, she relocated to St. Paul, Minn., when she took on a role as a family assessment social worker for Dakota County. In her free time, she runs ultra-marathons, writes poetry, and reads a copious amount of books. Leticia has a 21-year-old son who is graduating from the University of Utah in May, a 20-year-old daughter, who is finishing up her sophomore year at Boston University, and a 20-year-old daughter who lives and works in Albuquerque, N.M.
Many thanks to the Ignite Rural Program Director, Holly Doll, Anpao Win (First Light Woman), for conducting and organizing the Where Are They Now? Series.