7 Best Writing Classes in Boston

In-person workshop in Boston, $415 ($400 for members), taught by Brittany Williams. Six Tuesdays, 15 September to 20 October 2026, 10:30am-1:30pm at GrubStreet’s Seaport centre. For writers with a novel idea but no draft yet - generative rather than critique-led, built to get the opening chapters onto the page. Renewed from the expired ‘Love Me Back: Getting Your Romance Novel Ready for the Market’ listing; GrubStreet is not running that romance course this term, so this is the closest current same-provider novel course. NOTE the topic changed from romance-specific to general novel craft.

In-person workshop in Boston, $415 ($400 for members), taught by Heather Nelson. Six Wednesdays, 16 September to 21 October 2026, 10:30am-1:30pm at GrubStreet’s Seaport centre. The entry point to GrubStreet’s in-person programme - generative, genre-agnostic, and aimed at people who want to write but are not yet working on a specific project.

In-person workshop in Boston, $445 ($430 for members), taught by Ethan Gilsdorf. Six Tuesdays, 15 September to 20 October 2026, 10:30am-1:30pm at GrubStreet’s Seaport centre. The structure is the point: one finished essay a week for six weeks, so it produces a body of work rather than fragments. Daytime slot.

In-person workshop in Boston, $725 ($700 for members), taught by Liz Santiago. Ten Tuesdays, 15 September to 17 November 2026, 6:00-9:00pm at GrubStreet’s Seaport centre. The fiction counterpart to Memoir in Progress: bring an existing novel draft and workshop it over a full term. GrubStreet runs several parallel sections of this with different instructors - this is Santiago’s.

In-person workshop in Boston, $750 ($725 for members), taught by Frankie Concepcion. Ten Mondays, 14 September to 23 November 2026, 6:00-9:00pm at GrubStreet’s Seaport centre. For writers already working on a memoir manuscript rather than deciding whether to start one - ten weeks of sustained workshop on work in progress. Three-hour sessions, so more workshop time per week than the six-week courses.

In-person workshop in Boston, $595 ($575 for members), taught by Phoebe Hyde. Eight Thursdays, 10 September to 29 October 2026, 10:30am-1:30pm at GrubStreet’s Seaport centre. Written for people starting a memoir later in life and beginning with origin stories rather than the whole arc. Daytime scheduling suits anyone not working a standard week - most GrubStreet in-person workshops run evenings.

Emerson College offers a residential MFA in literary fiction, poetry, and nonfiction in Boston. Up to 80% of admitted students receive scholarships, awarded automatically on admission.