Sophfronia Scott's Blog: Sophfronia Scott, Author, page 24
June 9, 2018
The Times Literary Supplement Reviews Love’s Long Line
The London-based Times Literary Supplement, published a review of Love’s Long Line, written by Jennifer Schaffer. “Sophfronia Scott’s calm confidence in her craft and her generosity with her subjects give consistent pleasure.” An excerpt from the review can be found at this link. The page includes instructions on how to subscribe to TLS to read the full review.
Brevity Reviews Love’s Long Line
Author Renée E. D’Aoust writes, “Sophfronia Scott’s collection of essays Love’s Long Line reminds us that a life lived with hope is a life full of possibility. While walking in New York City’s Central Park or visiting her emotionally absent mother in Ohio, Scott shows us what it means to find faith.”
Sophfronia Discusses Essential Fiction for The Christian Century
From The Christian Century: “We asked some of our favorite novelists and poets to tell us about three recent works of fiction that they found especially moving, helpful, challenging, or beautiful and that speak to them in a deep way.”
Sophfronia Scott says of her choices, “…three books have moved me to see anew the beauty of our world and our humanity in all our brokenness and grace-filled hope.”
Midwestern Gothic Interview with Sophfronia Scott
Midwestern Gothic staffer Marisa Frey talked with author Sophfronia Scott about her book Love’s Long Line, solitude vs. loneliness, love and faith in everyday life, and more.
Motherhood and Words Reading Featured on Mom Enough Podcast
Since 2007, author and writing teacher, Kate Hopper, has invited a select group of women writers to read from their work at her annual Motherhood & Words Reading at the Loft Literary Center in Minneapolis. Kate’s mission is, in her own words, “to highlight the amazing writing out there by women about motherhood.”
As in years past, Mom Enough is proud to bring you this year’s event, featuring: Erin O. White, writing instructor and author of Given Up for You: A Memoir of Love, Belonging and Belief; Kaethe Schwehn, recipient of a Minnesota Book Award, writing teacher and author of The Rending and the Nest, Tailings: A Memoir, and Tanka & Me; and Sophfronia Scott, former writer and editor for Time and People, author of Love’s Long Line and Unforgivable Love: A Retelling of Dangerous Liaisons and co-author of This Child of Faith. Have a cup of tea, kick back and prepare to be amazed by these talented writers and mothers.
This Child of Faith Reviewed by Evangelists for Social Action
“Sophfronia Scott and her son, Tain Gregory, have a compelling story to tell. In December 2012, Tain was a third-grader at Sandy Hook Elementary, the school that became synonymous with the tragedy of school shootings when 20 first-grade children and six adult staff members were killed at Sandy Hook in a massacre that took only moments. Tain’s friend, Ben, was among those killed, as was the school’s principal, a woman who had only months earlier warmly welcomed Tain to his new school. Sophfronia and Tain tell their story in the book This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World.
This was not the only loss Tain had experienced in his young life. In that same year, his aunt—Sophfronia’s sister—died from complications following surgery. His best friend’s father was killed in a traffic accident. His beloved grandmother passed away. In the midst of overwhelming grief, Tain and his mother turned to their nascent Christian faith and their religious community for comfort and support, acknowledging that while God did not cause these events, God’s presence—expressed through the love of friends, family, and the church—would carry them through.”
Deviate Podcast Features Sophfronia Scott
In this episode of Deviate, Rolf Potts speaks with Sophfronia Scott about her working-class Ohio upbringing, and the background behind her name (2:40); her beginnings at TIME Magazine and her groundbreaking article on Generation X (13:00); her mid-life career change and commitment to a career as an author (30:00); her spiritual journey (40:00); and dealing with her son’s experience as a student at Sandy Hook Elementary (49:00).
The entire podcast can be heard at this link.
Love’s Long Line Listed by The Root
The Root published a list of new and upcoming books by black authors that “will give you life in these perilous times.”
“Novelist, journalist and professor Sophfronia Scott offers Love’s Long Line, a collection of essays pondering questions of race, motherhood and cultural events.”
Unforgivable Love Featured in Bookface Photo Series
The Amesbury Public Library in Amesbury, Massachusetts recently created and featured in its social media a “bookface” illustration of Unforgivable Love. A bookface image uses a live model to bring the cover image of a book to life. The Unforgivable Love image has been praised and shared multiple times.
Assay Journal Interview with Sophfronia Scott
Assay: A Journal in Nonfiction Studies, recently featured an interview with Sophfronia Scott in which she and the writer Elizabeth Cohen discuss Love’s Long Line and This Child of Faith.
“In the amphitheater of American horror stories, the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting of 20 school children and six adult staffers may be the saddest of all. The writer Sophfronia Scott, in her two new creative nonfiction books, This Child of Faith and Love’s Long Line, explores various facets of the tragedy and other topics with the vise of witness and her writer’s deep and empathic eye. Her son Tain attended the school and he survived that day. Not so his dear friend Ben, and many others from their community. Her two books, one written as a co-author with Tain, now 13, parse the enormity of that loss, along with the largest subjects of them all: faith, origins, life’s fragility, and motherhood with a capital M.”
