The Writers Grotto is a community of working writers, narrative artists, and creative storytellers committed to providing affordable, communal physical and virtual space in the San Francisco Bay Area for creatives to seriously pursue their work, to pool our talents to support each other, to amplify marginalized voices, and to engage the wider world through teaching, mentorship, and public programming. Research has shown that writers and authors of color comprise less than 20% of those in the industry, which makes the Grotto’s mission to increase diversity in the literary world all the more urgent.

Our creative community includes journalists and novelists, podcasters and poets, comedians and filmmakers, and playwrights and publishers. A major component of the Writers Grotto mission is to share our creative output and knowledge with the public, and our community has a record of extensive, successful public programming in reaching and teaching audiences the joys of literature, storytelling, and the creative process. Since 2008, we have offered classes and workshops to the general public free or at low cost, along with other free events such as literary readings and write-ins, in addition to the Grotto’s annual Rooted & Written Fellowship & Workshop for writers of color.

A wide range of working options are available to writers and creatives at every level of means—including full-time office rentals, shared office rentals, and drop-in coworking spaces, all of which afford virtual community participation and access to the invaluable Grotto listserve communications and resources. This fertile and deeply supportive creative environment has enabled the birthing of over a hundred books actually written at the Grotto, thousands of published articles, dozens of new book contracts, and copious awards bestowed on Grotto members by the top echelons of the creative industries, including Pulitzer Prizes, National Book Awards, PEN awards, and more.