Announcing GrubStreet’s New Home

Dear fellow Grubbies,

I have really big news to share. How big? Oh, just the biggest news in Grub’s history. That’s all. And this biggest-news-ever is only possible because of you: your advocacy, your enthusiasm, and your writerly brilliance.

Mayor Walsh has announced today that the Boston Planning and Development Agency and The Fallon Company have awarded 13,000+ square feet of cultural space at 50 Liberty Drive in the Seaport to GrubStreet! The space is right on the ocean across the marina from the Institute of Contemporary Art, and to put it simply: it’s stunning.

We’re thrilled to build the city’s very first narrative arts center in such an inspiring space. By cultivating stories from writers and storytellers from every zip code and age— from teens to people in their 90s and everyone in-between — we will reflect and amplify contemporary Boston as we know it: a culturally rich city full of artists and storytellers, creative thinkers and readers. Our plans include building a bookstore, a literary stage, a cafe, a podcast studio, community space for writers as well as expanding our classroom space for even more workshops and events.

This is a watershed moment (note the water imagery!) for both Boston and GrubStreet. Our story is as grassroots as they come. It has been written, shaped and brought to life by the imagination, talent, and generosity of so many of you. I want to thank everyone who has helped us get here along our twenty-one-year journey: our staff, our board, our literary council, our instructors, our donors, our members, and our students. It’s impossible to overstate how open-hearted, giving, and creative this community is.

We are already hard at work on many fronts, including finding the most convenient routes to travel to and from the new space which will be fully ADA accessible. In the coming months, we’ll communicate more with you about all aspects of this project. For now, here’s an FAQ of what we know so far. We also want to hear from you. How would you like to see this space used? What are you excited about? Curious about? We want to hear it all.

And finally, one last important note: though our new location might be fancier, we promise you we won’t be. From the classrooms to the bookstacks to the stage, we’ll be packing “the grub” and bringing it with us to the Seaport.

With love and gratitude,
Eve

About the Author

Eve Bridburg

Under Eve’s (she/her/hers) leadership, GrubStreet has grown into a national literary powerhouse known for artistic excellence, working to democratize the publishing pipeline and program innovation. An active partner to the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, Eve was the driving force behind securing chapter 91 space in the Seaport to build a creative writing center. The Barr Foundation recently named her a 2019 Barr Fellow in recognition of her leadership. Having graduated from its inaugural class, Eve remains active with the National Arts Strategies Chief Executive Program, a consortium of 200 of the world’s top cultural leaders, which addresses the critical issues that face the arts and cultural sector worldwide. Eve has presented on the future of publishing, what it takes to build a literary arts center, and the intersection of arts and civics at numerous local and national conferences. Her essays and op-eds on publishing, the role of creative writing centers and the importance of the narrative arts have appeared in The Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Cognoscenti, Writer's Digest and TinHouse. Eve serves on the Advisory Board of The Loop Lab, a new Cambridge-based nonprofit dedicated to increasing representation in the Media Arts. Eve worked as a literary agent at The Zachary Shuster Harmsworth Literary Agency for five happy years where she developed, edited, and sold a wide variety of books to major publishers. Before starting GrubStreet, she attended Boston University’s Writing program on a teaching fellowship, farmed in Oregon, and ran an international bookstore in Prague.

See other articles by Eve Bridburg