Neighborhood Classes

Write Down the Street / Autores a la Vuelta / Ekri anba lari a

GrubStreet and the Boston Public Library are working in partnership to provide free creative writing classes to Boston neighborhood libraries in the Egleston Square, Mattapan, and East Boston branches. Participants have the option of attending low commitment drop-in classes and more focused 6-week courses.

Click on the links below to sign up for. Scroll down for a class description and to meet the instructor.

Drop-in Classes

Want to get into creative writing, but not sure where to begin? Get inspired with a FREE session at your local library. For one hour, you’ll meet fellow writers, and learn to tell your story through fun directed exercises in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. New and practicing writers welcome!

Le llama la atención la escritura creativa, pero ¿no está seguro por dónde empezar? Inspírese con un taller GRATIS en su biblioteca local. Durante sesiones de una hora, conocerá a otros escritores y aprenderá a contar su historia, experimentando con la narrativa, las crónicas y la poesía. Son bienvenidos los escritores nuevos y al igual los que tienen más experiencia. 

Èske ou ta renmen kòmanse ekri kreyatif men ou pa fin sèten ki jan yo kòmanse? Jwenn enspire ak yon sesyon GRATIS nan bibliyotèk lokal ou a. Pou yon èdtan, ou pral rankontre lòt ekriven ak aprann rakonte istwa ou a ak egzèsis plezi nan fiksyon, nonfiksyon, ak pwezi. Nouvo ak ekriven ki gen eksperyans yo akeyi! 

Building Unforgettable Characters 

Saturday, April 28th, 2:00-3:30pm

Branch Details: Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library, 1350 Blue Hill Avenue, Mattapan, MA 02126 | 617-298-9218 | Website 

Instructor: Shawnna Thomas

Pa Rele Nou Mouri  | Writing Personal Poems of Social Significance

Saturday, May 5, 2:00-3:30pm

Branch Details: Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library, 1350 Blue Hill Avenue, Mattapan, MA 02126 | 617-298-9218 | Website 

Instructor: Enzo Silon Surin

Arroz con mango | Writing About Food*

Wednesday, May 23, 6:00-7:30pm

*NOTE: Registration will begin soon

Branch Details: Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library, 2044 Columbus Avenue, Roxbury, MA 02119 | 617-445-4340 | Website

Instructor: Denise Delgado

Six-Week Classes

6 Weeks, 6 Stories | 6 semanas, 6 cuentos* 

6 Fridays, 12:00pm-2:00pm, starting May 25th / 6 viernes, 12:00 - 2:00pm, empezando el 25 de mayo

*NOTE: Registration will begin soon

Branch Details: Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library, 2044 Columbus Avenue, Roxbury, MA 02119 | 617-445-4340 | Website

Instructor: Denise Delgado

Meet the Instructors

Denise Delgado

Denise Delgado is a writer, artist and curator. Her fiction and critical work have appeared in Inch, Hinchas de Poesía, Jai-Alai Magazine, Fiction Writers Review, the monograph for Frances Trombly: Paintings; and Tigertail, A South Florida Annual: Florida Flash, among others. Since 2010 she has organized the Free School for Writing, a modular, itinerant classroom for literary craft talks and workshops. She was a Fellow of the Honors College of Florida International University and Writer-in-Residence for Girls’ Club, a South Florida exhibition space and private foundation dedicated to women in contemporary art. She is the recipient of grants from New England Foundation for the Arts, Alternate ROOTS/The Ford Foundation, and Tigertail Productions’ Artist Access Program. Delgado received an MA in Media Studies from The New School and an MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College. She is currently at work on A Wig in the Duplex, a collection of short stories set in Florida. Find out more about Denise here.

Enzo Silon Surin

Enzo Silon Surin is a Haitian-born poet, educator, publisher and social advocate and the author of the chapbooks, A Letter of Resignation: An American Libretto (2017) and Higher Ground (2006). His poems have appeared in Transition Magazine/Jalada, Interviewing the Caribbean, Pangyrus, jubilat, Soundings East, The BreakBeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip-Hop, sx salon and Tidal Basin Review, among others. Surin is the recipient of a 2017 Brother Thomas Fellowship from The Boston Foundation and is a PEN New England Celebrated New Voice in Poetry. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Lesley University and is currently Associate Professor of English at Bunker Hill Community College.

Shawnna Thomas

Shawnna Thomas was born and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. She received her B.A. degree in English and African American Studies from Yale University in 2015. She is a recipient of the Elmore A. Willetts Prize for Fiction and the Second Place Wallace Prize for Fiction. She is currently working on her first collection of short stories.