The roots of the Hub City Writers Project reach way back to the late 1970s when poet John Lane left his hometown of Spartanburg and settled in Port Townsend, WA, where he befriended a collection of poets and environmental activists, including Gary Snyder and publishers Sam Hamill and Tree Swenson of Copper Canyon Press. When he returned from the West Coast, he brought the concepts of bioregionalism with him to found the Hub City Writers Project. His essay, "The Bioregional Origins of the Hub City Writers Project," appeared in Southern Spaces in 2012.

Hub City is a program of HubCulture Inc., a non-profit organization whose mission is to build community through dynamic arts and ideas. The board is led by chair Rebecca Ramos (pictured), vice chair Peter Caster, secretary Kimberly Ward, and treasurer Mike Trammell. Other board members include Lisa Atkins, Andrew Green, Ximena Herrera, Lora High, Dorothy Josey, Matthew Myers, Kam Neely, Dwight Patterson, Erica Shanks, Melissa Walker, Rochelle Williams, and Carl Wright. Emeritus members are Dwight Patterson, John Lane, and Gary Henderson.