Neighborhood Classes

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Write Down the Street

Write Down the Street has a special focus on making the creative writing workshop more accessible to those who have been underrepresented in it due to cost, racism, immigration status, language access, lack of access to transportation, and other barriers. We believe that these voices must be spotlighted with the range and fullness they deserve.

These programs are offered tuition-free thanks to the support of generous donors who are committed to our mission of ensuring all voices are heard.

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

Types of Classes

Want to get into creative writing, but not sure where to begin? Get inspired with a FREE session at your local library. There are three types of programs offered so far. All classes welcome new and practicing writers!

Drop-in Classes: For about one hour, you’ll meet fellow writers, and learn to tell your story through fun directed exercises in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and sometimes other genres or forms.

Multi-week Classes: These 2-hour classes meet weekly for three to six weeks. These regular meetings allow for more time to share work, and give and receive light feedback. Students read and discuss excerpts of works written by new and established authors, and try writing exercises that deepen and expand their own writing.

*New! Ask a Writer: Office Hours* – These are open to anyone who wants to ask an instructor a question about a writing project, resources, opportunities, upcoming classes, and tips. Just come to the library and sign up for a 20-minute max time block. Unfortunately, advance reservations are not possible. Office hours time blocks are scheduled on a first-come, first served basis.

Egleston Square Branch of the Boston Public Library

Your Brain on Creative Writing with Denise Delgado: Friday, January 25th 12:00pm to 1:30pm

Pitching for Publication with Britni de la Cretaz: Wednesday, February 27th 6:00pm to 7:30pm

Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library

Writing Craft: Stories in All of Our Languages with Denise Delgado: Monday, December 17th, 12:00pm to 1:3pm

So You Want to Be a Writer: Tips on Applying to GrubStreet's Emerging Writer Fellowship and Other Opportunities with Eson Kim: Thursday, January 24th 6:00pm to 7:00pm

Building Humans on a Page with Shawnna Thomas: Saturday, January 26th 3:00pm to 4:30pm

Blogging that Matters with Susan X Jane: Saturdays: February 9th, March 2nd, March 16th & March 30th 2:00pm to 4:00pm

East Boston Branch of the Boston Public Library

Cuentos con salsa clásica / Salsa Storytelling Series Tema: “Chica plástica,” Ruben Blades con Denise Delgado: lunes, 10 de diciembre, 1:00 a 2:30pm | Monday, December 10th, 1:00 to 2:30pm

So You Want to Be a Writer: Tips on Applying to GrubStreet's Emerging Writer Fellowship and Other Opportunities with Dariel Suarez: Saturday, January 26th 12:00pm to 1:00pm

New! Ask a Writer: Office Hours

These are open to anyone who wants to ask an instructor a question about a writing project, resources, opportunities, upcoming classes, and tips. Just come to the library and sign up for a 20-minute max time block. Office hours time blocks are scheduled on a first-come, first-serve basis. Register below! 

Schedule

Bocao Restaurant & Grill, Roxbury: Thursday, January 24th 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Brothers Deli, Mattapan: Thursday, January 31st 9:00am - 10:30am

East Boston Branch of the Boston Public Library: Wednesday, February 27th 2:30pm - 4:00pm

Mattapan Branch of the Boston Public Library: Saturday, March 9th 2:00pm - 3:30pm 

Egleston Branch of the Boston Public Library: Thursday, March 14th 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Meet the Instructors

Britni de la Cretaz

Britni de la Cretaz is a freelance journalist, sports writer, and essayist whose work has been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, espnW, Teen Vogue, Marie Claire, BRIDES Magazine, Parents Magazine, Literary Hub, Narratively, Elle, Vogue, and more. In 2017, she won the Nellie Bly Award for Investigative Journalism for her work on racism in the Boston sports media scene. She is currently working on a non-fiction book about women and girls in football. Visit britnidlc.com for more.

Candace McDuffie

As a dedicated music journalist and educator, Candace McDuffie has been freelancing for over a decade. Her work has appeared for Glamour, Forbes, Teen Vogue, Vibe, and several other publications. She received her M.A. from the University of Massachusetts at Boston, where she specialized in Critical and Creative Thinking. Candace enjoys working with youth and previously taught at the nonprofit teen literacy program, Books of Hope. For more information on Candace, you can visit her website at candacemcduffie.com.  

Denise Delgado

Denise Delgado is instructor, consultant, and Neighborhood Program Fellow at GrubStreet, teaching classes, including bilingual workshops in English and Spanish, and doing outreach in Boston neighborhoods and public libraries. She has facilitated creative writing and art workshops for adults and teens as well as socially-engaged arts projects at libraries, schools, museums, a prison and other community spaces since 1998.

Her fiction and critical work have appeared or are forthcoming in The Southeast Review, Inch, Hinchas de Poesía, Jai-Alai Magazine, 2040 Review, Fiction Writers Review, the anthology Florida Flash, and various contemporary art publications. Since 2010 she has organized the Free School for Writing, an itinerant classroom for literary craft talks and workshops. From 2005-2013 she worked for the Outreach Division of the Miami-Dade Public Library System as Curator for Art Services and Exhibitions and project director for the Vasari Project Archive. As a writer and multidisciplinary artist, Denise has received 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 a collection of linked short stories set in Miami and Cuba about two families connected through Operation Peter Pan.

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.

Erin Cohen

Erin spent her first year at Grub on the Finance and Operations team, and is currently transitioning onto the Programs team to work as Grub's Programs Coordinator for our core programs. Erin came to Boston from Oakland, where she ran a literacy tutoring program in public schools after a slew of unrelated but formative jobs—at a grocery store, a publishing house, a pizza place, a campground, and at a clinical trial in Peru. When she wasn’t working, she was studying English, Classics, and Education at St. John’s College NM, Mills College, and Harvard. These days, Erin writes essays about old and new books, trends in contemporary literature, and hip hop.

Ulya Aviral

Ulya Aviral is a writer and director for film. Her upcoming two international co-productions "Shut Your Eyes I'm Gonna Dance" about a trans man's journey to an alternate universe, which is composed by Utar Artun, a former GRAMMY Awards jury, and "My Nature" about a Mid-Eastern woman's escape from war are in the festival circuit. "My Nature" was screened at Court Métrage Short Film Corner at Cannes Film Festival. Her film "Colors Inside" is in the festival run: it is awarded and screened at festivals in Los Angeles, Romania, Toronto and Montreal. Ulya received her BA with a double major in Sociology and Studies in Cinema & Media Culture, and a minor in Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature from the University of Minnesota. Ulya worked with Diane Lake, the head writer of Frida (2002) researching for a feature screenplay. She assisted Rob Sabal, the Dean of the School of the Arts at Emerson College for his pedagogy class and departmental curriculum evaluations. In 2017, Ulya Aviral received her MFA in Film and Media Art from Emerson College with a focus on writing, directing and producing films.

Yara Liceaga-Rojas

Yara Liceaga-Rojas is a Puerto Rican poet/performer, cultural administrator and educator. She is a 2018 Cambridge Arts grantee for curating/coordinating the multi-disciplinary artists performance series Poetry Is Busy: Visible Caribe Series, and NEFAs' Creative City program grantee for her literary project Acentos espesos/Thick Accents. Recently, her work has been published in the anthologies Puerto Rico en mi corazón (Anomalous Press, 2018) and Isla Escrita: Antología de la Poesía de Cuba, Puerto Rico y República Dominicana (Amargord Ediciones, 2018).  Former Buscapié columnist at El Nuevo Día newspaper, she has three poetry books: Cielo Riel (Ediciones Alayubia, 2017), Época Opaca(Atarraya Cartonera, 2015), and El Mundo No Es Otra Cosa (La Secta de los Perros Editores, 2014). She has given creative writing, perforpoetry, and visual poetry workshops at The City School, Dorchester, MA; The Puerto Rican Museum of Contemporary Art, Santurce, PR; and the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, San Juan and Ponce, PR, among others.