Grotto nurtures writers
Po Bronson can’t be sure if things have gotten easier or harder for writers in the past two decades. Things have certainly changed within the profession — from undulations in book publishing to the Internet’s upheaval of media forms — since the author and journalist co-founded the Grotto, a writers’ work space that began in 1993 and has since grown into a community made up of a who’s who collection of writers.
“It’s always been hard, let me just make it really clear,” Bronson says over the phone with a laugh that mixes with a sigh.
Writers have had to become more resourceful at the very least in what is now increasingly becoming a gig economy for them, says Bronson. What hasn’t changed is the need for something like the Grotto, a selected members-community of writers, now numbering 124 in total, who rent offices within a shared space. The work rooms, occupying an office floor in San Francisco’s South Park, also house a diverse set of writing courses offered to the public and taught by its members.
The Grotto even has a podcast featuring interviews with writers; its last episode was a revisit to an old interview with Grotto member and former New York Times poetry editor Matthew Zapruder.
But what the Grotto is now, a robust community for professional writers and aspiring ones alike, was only a fledgling dream when it began.
“We were just worried desperately about making the rent,” Bronson says. In 1993, Bronson and writers Ethan Watters and Ethan Canin founded the Grotto after renting out a commercial flat above a stationery store on Market Street. They intended for the space to be a segue for those deciding to make a go of writing full time.
“So much of the emphasis on the writer’s life was on getting published, but there wasn’t really a resource for that ‘quit your day job’ moment,” Bronson says.
Writers came and rented out spaces, but an upsurge of rents every few years would force a mad scramble and a move to another area (the current space is their fourth). The Grotto as it is now, Bronson says, came from an idea that expanded out of necessity.
But the Grotto hasn’t changed much in its essence. It is still ultimately defined by its solidarity — a place where writers, physically or even virtually, can find support and advice in a profession often defined by isolation.
“We email each other internally,” Bronson says, “and most weeks someone’s got some good news. Someone wrote a really interesting piece. Someone is out there, and it gives you a little charge.”
Former and current Grotto members have gone on to write best-sellers, create television shows and publish work in prestigious publications. Some students from their courses have gone on to do the same.
“To us, when it kind of happens, we’re very happy for them, but we feel like it was inevitable,” Bronson says. “We feel like it’s just kind of finally happening for you in a way that we’d always known it would.”
The Grotto will hold a three minute-reads event Friday, Aug. 25, at San Francisco’s Book Passage, where students from Grotto courses will read their work.