GrubStreet Statement of Values
We at GrubStreet believe that the narrative arts are a sanctuary. No book has ever refused a reader. Great writing cannot exist if it is based on hate, fear, division, exclusion, scapegoating, or the worship of injustice and power. Writers cannot write if they are incapable of empathy, of imagining what it is that an other feels, thinks, and sees. Through reading and writing, through identifying with characters who are nothing like us, we who love words learn to love others.
As writers and readers, we are committed to these literary principles, which manifest themselves outside of books through rejecting monolithic thinking, and embracing inclusion, diversity, hospitality, respect, dialogue, and love for all. We stand against any form of physical or verbal abuse, any use of language to stigmatize or demonize people, any assault on someone’s body or character, any threat to deport, report, or register someone because of their race, culture, national origin, religion, sexuality, gender, ideology, class, disability, or being.
Even if each of us is solitary as a reader or a writer, none of us is alone. Words bring us together. Storytelling has always been crucial to this and any other country. Reading and writing play a crucial role in shaping the imagination and in offering refuge. What we do matters. What we do as teachers, writers, and readers, is to assert, again and again, that you—that we—are not alone.
Adapted from a Statement of Values released by the Faculty and Staff of the Department of English at the University of Southern California, written by Viet Thanh Nguyen
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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.
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