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Love's Long Line
Sophfronia Scott turns an unflinching eye on her life to deliver a poignant collection of essays ruminating on faith, motherhood, race, and the search for meaningful connection in an increasingly disconnected world.
In Love’s Long Line, Scott contemplates what her son taught her about grief after the shootings at his school, Sandy Hook Elementary; how a walk with Lena Horne became a remembrance of love for Scott’s illiterate and difficult steelworker father; the unexpected heartache of being a substitute school bus driver; and the satisfying fantasy of paying off a mortgage. Scott’s road is also a spiritual journey ignited by an exploration of her first name, the wonder of her physical being, and coming to understand why her soul must dance like Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero.
Inspired by Annie Dillard’s observation in Holy the Firm that we all “reel out love’s long line alone . . . like a live wire loosed in space to longing and grief everlasting,” Scott’s essays acknowledge the loneliness, longing, and grief exacted by a fearless engagement with the everyday world. But she shows that by holding the line, there is an abundance of joy and forgiveness and grace to be had as well.
In Love’s Long Line, Scott contemplates what her son taught her about grief after the shootings at his school, Sandy Hook Elementary; how a walk with Lena Horne became a remembrance of love for Scott’s illiterate and difficult steelworker father; the unexpected heartache of being a substitute school bus driver; and the satisfying fantasy of paying off a mortgage. Scott’s road is also a spiritual journey ignited by an exploration of her first name, the wonder of her physical being, and coming to understand why her soul must dance like Saturday Night Fever’s Tony Manero.
Inspired by Annie Dillard’s observation in Holy the Firm that we all “reel out love’s long line alone . . . like a live wire loosed in space to longing and grief everlasting,” Scott’s essays acknowledge the loneliness, longing, and grief exacted by a fearless engagement with the everyday world. But she shows that by holding the line, there is an abundance of joy and forgiveness and grace to be had as well.
240 pages, Paperback
First published February 11, 2018
5 people are currently reading
246 people want to read
About the author
Sophfronia Scott
14 books378 followersSophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. Her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton won the 2021 Thomas Merton “Louie” Award from the International Thomas Merton Society. She holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
Sophfronia began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time, where she co-authored the groundbreaking cover story “Twentysomething,” the first study identifying the demographic group known as Generation X, and People. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004 Sophfronia was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as “potentially one of the best writers of her generation.”
Her latest book is Wild, Beautiful, and Free, a historical novel set during the Civil War. Sophfronia’s other books include Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, Doing Business By the Book, and This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, co-written with her son Tain. Her essays, short stories, and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Yankee Magazine, The Christian Century, North American Review, NewYorkTimes.com, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her essays “Hope On Any Given Day,” “The Legs On Which I Move,” and “Why I Didn’t Go to the Firehouse” are listed among the Notables in the Best American Essays series.
Sophfronia has taught at Regis University’s Mile High MFA and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She is currently the director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. Sophfronia lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
Sophfronia began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time, where she co-authored the groundbreaking cover story “Twentysomething,” the first study identifying the demographic group known as Generation X, and People. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 2004 Sophfronia was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. as “potentially one of the best writers of her generation.”
Her latest book is Wild, Beautiful, and Free, a historical novel set during the Civil War. Sophfronia’s other books include Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, Doing Business By the Book, and This Child of Faith: Raising a Spiritual Child in a Secular World, co-written with her son Tain. Her essays, short stories, and articles have appeared in numerous publications including Yankee Magazine, The Christian Century, North American Review, NewYorkTimes.com, and O, The Oprah Magazine. Her essays “Hope On Any Given Day,” “The Legs On Which I Move,” and “Why I Didn’t Go to the Firehouse” are listed among the Notables in the Best American Essays series.
Sophfronia has taught at Regis University’s Mile High MFA and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She is currently the director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. Sophfronia lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 21, 2018
Love’s Long Line is a beautiful and deeply meditative collection of essays touched with grace. Scott writes with a heart wide open and invites the reader to contemplate both the glory and struggle of life in the microcosm of family and in the larger world. With her insights and speculations, she offers pathways to help us believe that we can still find goodness in the world. The writing is lovely and these essays meander and move in the best way possible. Definitely a book you'd want to keep on your nightstand so you can easily access the beauty of language and thought.
June 28, 2020
"I will not, through fear and worrying, walk myself through the dark valley before I come to it." - Sophfronia Scott, Love's Long Line
I could write an essay about each essay Sophfronia has written in this gorgeous collection. There's something for everyone here - essays, many in memoir form, on love, writing, parents, parenting, grief, joy, forgiveness, race, religion - and I could connect to every one. There's even an essay in here that has saved marriages. What she's shared here is a gift.
I could write an essay about each essay Sophfronia has written in this gorgeous collection. There's something for everyone here - essays, many in memoir form, on love, writing, parents, parenting, grief, joy, forgiveness, race, religion - and I could connect to every one. There's even an essay in here that has saved marriages. What she's shared here is a gift.
December 17, 2018
This essay collection brims with (equally) exquisite thinking and prose about subjects that mystify us --- in life and in our personal experiences. Sophfronia Scott is a serious seeker of meaning and her perspective makes for mesmerizing reading. In mid-life now, she has endured so much already. Many of her essays explore this question: how do violence and love co-exist in a world fashioned by a divine hand, and can we tip the scales toward love and connecting deeply with our family members, with others, and with God? She openly shares specifics and insights from the physical violence she experienced as a child and explains how she has repackaged (in her mind and heart) the effects of that violence, transcending it in her adult life, only to be faced six years ago by the devastating time and place tragedy of the Newtown, CT massacre of young schoolchildren and their teachers. Her family was close to a child who died that horrible day. I recommend this collection of essays. It will propel reflection about your own life, though depending on your experiences, some of her essays will have a greater impact than others. If you should have the opportunity to hear this author read her essays from this collection, do try to be present.
September 4, 2018
I don't often read essay collections, but I'm glad I read this one. It's a gem. I typically immerse myself in a book and read as much as I can every evening, but I took my time with Love's Long Line, putting it down after reading each individual essay so I could appreciate it and think about it, then reading a new essay the following night. There wasn't a clunker in the bunch--each essay is beautifully written, and thoughtful. A wonderful book.
April 12, 2019
A lovely collection of personal essays, with a spiritual bent that helps calm the mind. The author's way of conveying her truth through stories from her life is subtle and the essays are beautifully written.
April 28, 2018
My soul feels enriched by the time I've spent with Sophfronia Scott's beautiful writing—and the equally beautiful spirit that infuses it. I highly recommend this essay collection.
March 4, 2021
Copy/paste of what I wrote about this book to a group of clergy colleagues:
I know many of us are experiencing new levels of burnout and spiritual emptiness. Before I collapsed over the finish line to begin my deferred sabbatical last month, I was in a bad way. I’ve been reading like a maniac and have a book recommendation for you all: Love’s Long Line by Sophfronia Scott. It’s a collection of essays by a fairly new convert to the Episcopal Church. So there’s an element of getting to see the gospel through unjaded eyes. She’s a resident of Newtown and her son was at school the day of the shootings, so there’s also an element of confronting and healing from trauma (including her own childhood trauma). But most of all, she herself is just so deeply inspiring. There’s an optimism that doesn’t grate on me, and I’m a cranky pessimist. The best comparison I can give is that it’s like the literary equivalent of Ted Lasso. The book and the show have zero in common on the surface - he’s a fictional white guy and she’s a very real Black woman - but both Ted Lasso and Sophfronia Scott made me want to be kinder and more forgiving. There’s also an amazing chapter on sexuality, embodiment, and spirituality that was worth the price of the book. (Well, I got it at the library but you know what I mean.) I really loved this book and if you can track down a copy and some time in your favorite cozy chair, do.
I know many of us are experiencing new levels of burnout and spiritual emptiness. Before I collapsed over the finish line to begin my deferred sabbatical last month, I was in a bad way. I’ve been reading like a maniac and have a book recommendation for you all: Love’s Long Line by Sophfronia Scott. It’s a collection of essays by a fairly new convert to the Episcopal Church. So there’s an element of getting to see the gospel through unjaded eyes. She’s a resident of Newtown and her son was at school the day of the shootings, so there’s also an element of confronting and healing from trauma (including her own childhood trauma). But most of all, she herself is just so deeply inspiring. There’s an optimism that doesn’t grate on me, and I’m a cranky pessimist. The best comparison I can give is that it’s like the literary equivalent of Ted Lasso. The book and the show have zero in common on the surface - he’s a fictional white guy and she’s a very real Black woman - but both Ted Lasso and Sophfronia Scott made me want to be kinder and more forgiving. There’s also an amazing chapter on sexuality, embodiment, and spirituality that was worth the price of the book. (Well, I got it at the library but you know what I mean.) I really loved this book and if you can track down a copy and some time in your favorite cozy chair, do.
May 14, 2023
I searched this book out after hearing Sophfronia Scott read in person. This isn't the book she was promoting, but I like essays, so I found it. The first few pieces, two of which detail the personal impact of horrible "current" events (i.e., her son was at Sandy Hook Elementary the day of the shooting), I am interested in, but they don't captivate me. However, the entire second section sends me over the moon. "Holding One End of Love" is the title of the section. Scott writes of her family and childhood in Lorain, Ohio. This is writing that makes me grateful to be literate; I did not miss out on this experience. Perfect naturalness, able to leap back into her memories with utter honesty: these four essays make me want to write. I have not finished the book yet, but for this section, alone, I want to shout out: READ THIS. If you teach, use this book with your students.
October 22, 2018
It was a really mixed read for me. Some of the essays were deeply relatable and moving. Others, much harder for me to feel an understanding of and connection with the author. It felt like she was working through some things in real time as a I read, which is interesting, but also doesn't make sense as books are heavily edited and thought through. The religious and spiritual elements did not appeal at all and the complicated relationship with her parents was on one hand, totally understandable, and on the other, super odd.
August 13, 2018
A book of essays. One of my favorite genres of writing. These essays are beautifully written. I devoured the book but I believe it should be read slowly and so I will be rereading it to savor each essay on its own. Honoring Autumnis a masterpiece. There is not one iota of punctuation but it reads perfectly.
August 17, 2019
Elegantly wrought essays on motherhood, daughterhood, grief, forgiveness, and more.
Favorite essays:
“Why I Didn’t Go to the Firehouse”
“Calling Me by My Name”
“Letter to a Newborn Mother”
“Tony Morrison and Me”
“Speaking with My Mother Now”
Favorite essays:
“Why I Didn’t Go to the Firehouse”
“Calling Me by My Name”
“Letter to a Newborn Mother”
“Tony Morrison and Me”
“Speaking with My Mother Now”
January 25, 2020
This was such a delight! Scott has some tough stories, but I so greatly appreciated her joy. She got me thinking about of my own stories that I’d like to tell; that’s always an excellent sign.
July 19, 2018
I enjoyed this book. There were too many church and religion references for me to say I fully loved it, but the writer was authentic, honest, and skillfully told the stories of her interesting, complicated life. Several I identified with strongly and she made me cry more than a few times; in a book of short stories there are always favorites and less favorites, so I'm going to give it five stars even though I didn't love them all. There's a lot of emotion and love in this dense collection and it's very worth reading.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews