About
Mission
GrubStreet was founded on the core belief that everyone with a desire to write should be taken seriously, taught the craft at a high level, and pushed to produce their best work. At our launch nineteen years ago, few expected a writing center with such open borders could develop publishable work of artistic merit and deep meaning. Our astonishing track record has proven those early skeptics wrong.
In the last few years, seven of our advanced students have secured major book deals; three of our instructors have won coveted fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts; another instructor received the 2015 Massachusetts Book Award for her best-selling novel; and our Artistic Director was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.
GrubStreet has had broad and transformative impact on the local writing community, our city, and the national literary conversation. GrubStreet networks and programs foster a rich local writing scene that encourages emerging writers to stay in Boston despite rising costs. Downtown Boston boasts the nation’s first Literary Cultural District thanks to Grubstreet’s partnership with local libraries, universities, nonprofits, and the City of Boston. Another City partnership gave rise to The Memoir Project, which brings the transformative power of creative writing to seniors in every neighborhood. The country’s premier literary conference, The Muse and the Marketplace, educates writers about craft and publishing, provides meaningful networking opportunities, and elevates national dialogue about equity, diversity, and inclusion.
GrubStreet Today
GrubStreet thrives in a unique, vital space between centers of adult education and universities — more artistic, demanding, and focused than adult education, more flexible, dynamic, community-based, affordable, and accessible than universities. We address the entire writing journey from idea to craft to publication and audience development. Each year, we engage over 2,500 students in 500 workshops and seminars on short fiction, the novel, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, young adult fiction, publishing, the writer's life, and digital opportunities, all taught with an emphasis on rigor, support, and community.
GrubStreet, widely known for innovative programming and thought-leadership, is a national leader in the fast-growing field of independent creative writing centers. The first center to launch yearlong graduate-level programs, we have the country’s most comprehensive creative writing course catalogue, are the top-earning creative writing center in the country, and one of the few to prepare writers to navigate today’s fast-changing publishing environment.
GrubStreet Tomorrow
GrubStreet is poised to become the most inclusive and productive writing center in the country and a national model for independent creative writing centers. We are widely recognized for our influence on Boston’s cultural landscape, the region’s creative economy, and our country’s literary conversation. To grow GrubStreet’s role and reach, we will expand access and broaden participation in our work, push artistic excellence to the next level, and deepen our commitment to the next generation of writers.
GrubStreet will triple its scholarships and bring workshops into Boston neighborhoods to increase the participation of underrepresented writers; transform the structure of our workshops to better serve a more diverse student body; develop new resources to help our instructors innovate; and be a leading voice in advocating for a more inclusive publishing landscape. We will deepen our commitment to our founding principles of access and excellence: everyone with a desire to write should be taken seriously, taught the craft at a high level, and pushed to produce their best work.
Artistic Excellence
We will engage our students in a rigorous artistic process, offer innovative and advanced programs taught by top talent, open doors to both traditional and self-publishing networks, and bring the most exciting voices in literature to Boston to mentor and teach our students. We plan on attracting and incubating top talent in our incubator programs, developing new advanced programs, and reenvisioning the Muse and the Marketplace conference to engage a broader and more national audience.
The Next Generation
We will conduct rigorous evaluations of our Young Adult Writers Programs for 13-18 year olds and develop a thoughtful plan to expand and deepen our offerings. This includes expanding our free Saturday Sessions, the Vacation Week and Summer Teen Writing Camps, and the Summer Writer’s Fellowship program. At GrubStreet, educating the next generation of writers is a key priority.
GrubStreet 2020
Over the next three years, GrubStreet’s Campaign for 2020 will raise funds to increase scholarships, expand programs, and grow staff to support larger, more complex operations. This is an ambitious, achievable vision. Please join us. Help GrubStreet engage new writers, unleash powerful ideas that open and shape minds, and create deeply meaningful shared experiences among an inclusive community. Together, we will build a robust creative writing center for 2020 and decades beyond.