Sophfronia Scott

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Born
in Lorain, Ohio, The United States
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Influences

Member Since
August 2011

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Sophfronia 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
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Sophfronia Scott Creativity playdates are just as important as the time you schedule for writing. In fact, your writing time can be difficult and fruitless without the…moreCreativity playdates are just as important as the time you schedule for writing. In fact, your writing time can be difficult and fruitless without them. If you find you spend much of your writing time staring wordless at the screen or blank page, you’re in need of a creativity playdate. Looking for a story idea? Ride the subway a few stops or go sit in a park and pay attention. Your next character might step on at West 66th Street, or stroll past you wearing a top hat and walking a fluffy Scottish terrier sporting blue booties on its paws. I know my writing eye is awakened every time I travel the 65 miles south to New York City and take in the energy and movement of a different environment. Suddenly my senses have new sights, sounds, and smells to process. It’s exciting.

I encourage you to schedule a creativity playdate at least once a month. If you can’t think of something to do, consider this—you want to excite your five senses. Try to come up with ideas addressing each one. For example:
---Smell: Explore perfume or incense shops; check out a store where you can sniff barrels of coffee beans, visit a florist.
---Touch: Go to high-end stores or fabric shops where you can run your hands over rich materials or beautiful furniture. Take a cue from your childhood and visit a petting zoo or an aquarium that features touch tanks of specimens to hold.
---Sight: Feast your eyes on works of art, or go on hikes to see spectacular views.
---Sound: Attend concerts, plays, musicals, or sit in a place with lots of people where you can pick up pieces of overheard conversation.
---Taste: Try a new cuisine by cooking a recipe you’ve never tried before or going to a different restaurant.

Really, you could do anything you want for your creativity playdate as long as you don’t forget to have fun!(less)
Sophfronia Scott The best way to answer this is with my note about "Artist as Seer" that I wrote for issue 33 of Ruminate Magazine. I consider myself a writer and an a…moreThe best way to answer this is with my note about "Artist as Seer" that I wrote for issue 33 of Ruminate Magazine. I consider myself a writer and an artist and this is what it's all about:

I’ll walk out of the house with my son—he’s 10—and say, “Wow, look at those orange-pink clouds!” Or I’ll call him to the window to show him a super bright moon. My work as an artist is this same act on a different scale. In every piece of writing I am essentially pointing out what I see in the world. "Look! I see love. And over there—that’s courage. Isn’t it beautiful? Isn’t it amazing?"

This is important because I believe as a community we require art and beauty to feed our hope, to help us see what makes life worthy when we are too busy or too tired or too frustrated to see for ourselves. I feel confident that when I mark what I see, and do it well, others are encouraged to see on their own, just as when my son says, as he did this morning, “Mama, look at those leaves! They’ve never been that red before.” My role then is to affirm and say, “Yes.”(less)
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Adding Friends to the Mix

For this morning’s walk, I’m on Substack! The reason why is connected to my topic. You may have heard me say that I don’t do a new tech thing unless I have a specific need that it can fulfill for me. I’ve avoided Substack for ages until I took a class (Thanks Jane Friedman!) that showed me how it can help me connect with the many people I know who are not on social media, but communicate via email

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Published on January 02, 2026 12:13
Lovely One: A Memoir
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Inciting Joy: Essays
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Sophfronia’s Recent Updates

Sophfronia Scott is on page 222 of 432 of Lovely One
Lovely One by Ketanji Brown Jackson
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The Wilderness by Angela Flournoy
The Wilderness
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Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
"Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate is the type of book I love to read. I read this before I taught it to my fifth graders, and by the end, I was sobbing. Katherine's use of line breaks makes this book often read like poetry or a song, which, as" Read more of this review »
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Inciting Joy by Ross Gay
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The Remarkable Ordinary by Frederick Buechner
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A Model for Seeing

This book represents Frederick Buechner at his best, showing us through his own story how to recognize God’s presence in our lives.
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Quotes by Sophfronia Scott  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“I savor these moments. They sit tart and bright and sweet on my tongue like the taste of hibiscus tea with honey. From these moments I can cultivate gratitude and from gratitude I distill grace.”
Sophfronia Scott, On Being 40

“People don’t think to ask for anything. They don’t want to be told no.”
Sophfronia Scott, Unforgivable Love: A Retelling of Dangerous Liaisons

“She felt something comforting about his attentiveness; it was like having an earthbound deity watching over her, and she warmed in his sun constantly shining on her”
Sophfronia Scott, Unforgivable Love: A Retelling of Dangerous Liaisons

Polls

Ok I don't know what happened but I completed this poll about 2 hrs ago and now I can't find it!!! This is a really touchy part of Goodreads, but...I am gonna try again!

This poll is for the May Members Choice book.

If your book wins please be prepared to add to the conversation.

The poll will stay open until April 13th.

Thank you to everyone who nominated a book.

Happy reading and good luck...

 
  11 votes, 32.4%

 
  7 votes, 20.6%

 
  6 votes, 17.6%

 
  6 votes, 17.6%

 
  4 votes, 11.8%

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“If only we arrange our life according to that principle which counsels us that we must hold to the difficult, then that which now still seems to us the most alien will become what we most trust and find most faithful.”
Rainer Maria Rilke

“Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery it is. In the boredom and pain of it, no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.”
Frederick Buechner, Now and Then: A Memoir of Vocation – Intimate Reflections on Faith, Seminary, Ministry, and Writing

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark in the hopeless swamps of the not-quite, the not-yet, and the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish in lonely frustration for the life you deserved and have never been able to reach. The world you desire can be won. It exists.. it is real.. it is possible.. it's yours.”
Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

“I'm going to smile, and my smile will sink down into your pupils, and heaven knows what it will become.”
Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit

“When you remember me, it means you have carried something of who I am with you, that I have left some mark of who I am on who you are. It means that you can summon me back to your mind even though countless years and miles may stand between us. It means that if we meet again, you will know me. It means that even after I die, you can still see my face and hear my voice and speak to me in your heart.”
Frederick Buechner

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message 1: by Rick

Rick Schroeder Hi Sophfonia,

Thanks for having me as a friend. Much appreciated.

Rick


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