Sophfronia’s Blog
Kind Words
A blog about what I find amazing, smart, beautiful, or just plain fun.
Creativity Playdate: City Island, New York City
This week: an unexpected creativity playdate. I drove a friend and her family to JFK International Airport and as we passed through the Bronx, I pointed out the signs to City Island, a tiny island neighborhood, 1.5 miles long, jutting out into the westernmost point of Long Island Sound. I said, [...]
A Grateful Writing Life
I am waiting. It’s a common activity for writers. You work on a piece of writing. You finish it. You send it somewhere. You send it to a reader for feedback, you send it to a literary journal for possible publication, or you send it to a literary agent for [...]
Toni Morrison and Me
I tend to talk about Toni Morrison with a cautious blitheness. I mention how we share the same hometown, Lorain, Ohio, but even that’s a scary thing to do. Why would I want to invite comparisons to a Nobel and Pulitzer prizewinning author? Such a thought would send most writers [...]
What’s Literary Citizenship?
What does it mean to be a literary citizen? The word "citizen" implies living somewhere and in this case we're talking about taking up residence in the literary world. I like Cathy Day's answer. She's the author of two books: Comeback Season: How I Learned to Play the Game of Love (Free [...]
Loving What You Write
I was walking around my yard in a bit of a daze. The day before I had finished the novel revision I’d been working on for months. Like the crazy woman I am, instead of resting I was trying to organize my thoughts for the next novel. But I felt [...]
Who’s Afraid of Writing?
In honor of Halloween I’m addressing the ghostly presence that haunts all writers: the blank screen/page. I haven’t thought about this specter for a while because I’ve spent the past few months submerged in a novel revision. However, last week I hit the SEND button, delivered the book to my [...]
My VCFA Graduation Speech
On Saturday, July 5, I graduated from Vermont College of Fine Arts with my MFA in Writing, fiction and creative nonfiction. My classmates chose me to deliver an address. I wanted very much to do them proud. Here's the video. Since my talk is all about creativity and connection I hope [...]
My Writing Process – Blog Tour
Picture a group of writers. We’re on a bus. No, we’re not singing Elton John's “Tiny Dancer” like they do in the movie Almost Famous but we are traveling great distances and having fun. We stop at the virtual internet residence of each writer and there he or she introduces [...]
