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David Fleming, 26, has taken two fiction classes at Grub Street and is taking another this fall. "I did consider Harvard’s extension program, but the courses were something like $1200, the equivalent of three Grub Street courses," he says. (Most classes at Grub Street, intimate workshops of no more than a dozen students, meet once a week for 10 weeks. The cost is $400 for members, $425 for nonmembers. A few offerings are four or six weeks, and there are a variety of weekend seminars.) "Grub has helped me recognize that writing, though a solitary pursuit, is not a skill that can be honed in isolation."

"In virtually any school situation there are going to be people who aren’t really interested in what they’re studying," adds Karl Wassmann, 20. "But everyone involved with Grub Street is seriously interested in writing."

Short-story writer Marea Beeman, 40, says the place’s value comes not just from the classroom, but in the way it caters to the whole gamut of the writing process: writing, connecting with others who write, and helping writers get published. "Everything it does is welcoming and encouraging to writers working at all stages."

In addition to teaching the classic Chekhovian short story, genre fiction like mystery and sci-fi, poetry and screenwriting, Grub Street offers nonfiction instruction — everything from memoir and personal essay to travel writing, food writing, feature writing, op-eds. There are also specialty seminars, like one called Moms Who Write.

"We have waitresses who are undergrads, and we have retirees, and we have everything in between," says Bridburg. "Doctors, lawyers, investment bankers. Smart people who do one job and have writing ambitions."

At a reception a couple weeks ago celebrating Grub Street’s new digs, it was apparent just how many people are deeply committed to the place. It was wall-to-wall with regular joes and literary swells, drinking red wine and nibbling hors d’oeuvres as they talked excitedly about James Joyce and JP Donleavy, or their own as-yet-unpublished books. This ability to bring together aspiring scribes from all corners of this far-flung city, is another crucial part of Grub Street’s appeal. It offers everything from monthly open-mike nights at Johnny D’s in Somerville to the popular Saturday Morning Cereal workshops, where bleary-eyed authors munch donuts and sip coffee while taking part in panel discussions on screenwriting and self-publishing. Grub’s annual Muse and the Marketplace event offers writers the chance to meet agents and editors, a literary-networking opportunity that can’t really be found elsewhere in Boston.

It’s this commitment to all aspects of the craft, and the creativity and aplomb with which it’s borne out, that attracted Susan Orlean to sign on to the organization’s advisory board. She’d been invited to participate in a Grub Street series at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in which she and writers like Tom Perotta (Election) and Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog) read their work and then screen scenes from their film adaptations. (This was around the time Orlean herself was being portrayed, with some black-comedic liberties, by Meryl Streep in Spike Jonze’s Adaptation.)

"I was just really swept away," she says. "I thought, ‘What is this Grub Street? It’s such a funny name. I don’t understand what they are or who they are, but boy they sure know how to do a cool literary event.’"

Orlean has never taken a writing class, but she realizes that most people aren’t as lucky as she has been. "Lots of people who have day jobs and really love the idea of writing have no day-to-day connection with the idea of being a writer. Being part of an organization [like this] is a really important identity. It becomes an important element in being able to say to yourself, ‘I am a writer.’ "

Fellow advisory-board member Arthur Golden agrees. "I’ve taught writing for many years. I’ve taught at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education, at BU, and other places. This is the first one I’d seen that was focused exclusively on writing. This was intended to be a resource for writers, not only for teaching, but to provide a sense of community. Writing is a very lonely undertaking for a lot of people.

"I think getting a new home and really making themselves a permanent physical presence, is a huge step toward them really being established, in the best sense," adds Golden. "But it does of course come with its challenges. The bigger and grander the space the more solid the organization has to be."

Orlean doesn’t doubt that Grub Street has the gumption to stick around. "I was nine-months’ pregnant [at the time of the Adaptation event]. I kept saying, ‘I don’t know if I can commit to doing this. They said, ‘If you have the baby during the event, that’s fine. We’ll take care of it, no problem!’ It was hilarious. I can’t believe they got me to agree to it, but they were very persuasive, which is a good thing in a nonprofit."

TURNING THE PAGE

Eight years and almost 3000 students later, Grub Street is firmly established as the center of literary life in Boston and, hopefully, beyond. "Our ultimate goal is a house," says Castellani. "A real house, with an author upstairs."

"A writer-in-residence, literally," Bridburg says.

In the meantime, there’s more work to do: money to raise, students to recruit, and many, many more books to get published. Gesturing at the empty walls around her, broken up by windows facing the Common, Beacon Hill, and the State House’s gleaming golden dome, Bridburg muses about erecting a wall of fame, bedecked with portraits of Boston’s literary giants. "We want to capitalize on the great, rich literary history here, and celebrate the art, and craft, of writing," she says.

Castellani finishes her thought. "I think we take that literary tradition for granted here. It’s sort of musty. We want to dust it off."

Mike Miliard can be reached at mmiliard[a]phx.com.