Spark My Muse Book Club Discussion
2021-04-07 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York)
Register here for this discussion led by Lisa Colon Delay.
What if we truly belong to each other? What if we are all walking around shining like the sun?
Mystic, monk, and activist Thomas Merton asked those questions in the twentieth century. Writer Sophfronia Scott is asking them today.
In The Seeker and the Monk, Scott mines the extensive private journals of one of the most influential contemplative thinkers of the past for guidance on how to live in these fraught times.
As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love. She asks: What is the connection between contemplation and action? Is there ever such a thing as a wrong answer to a spiritual question? How do we care about the brutality in the world while not becoming overwhelmed by it?
By engaging in this lively discourse, readers will gain a steady sense of how to dwell more deeply within–and even to love–this despairing and radiant world.
Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in Time, People, O: The Oprah Magazine, and numerous other outlets. When her first novel, All I Need to Get By, was published, she was nominated for best new author at the African American Literary Awards and hailed by Henry Louis Gates Jr. as “one of the best writers of her generation.” Her other books include Unforgivable Love, Love’s Long Line, and This Child of Faith. Scott holds degrees from Harvard and the Vermont College of Fine Arts. She lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
Ask questions of the author, discuss the material, find out more about Thomas Merton and the book “The Seeker and the Monk” during our time together.

VCFA Alumnx Reading
2021-04-08 20:00 - 21:00
Sophfronia will be a featured reader in this virtual gathering of graduates and students of the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing program. Registration link TBA.

Guest Speaker, International Thomas Merton Society, CT Chapter
2021-04-14 19:00 - 21:00
JOIN US FOR A SPECIAL EVENING WITH SOPHFRONIA SCOTT AS SHE REFLECTS ON HER NEW BOOK ON THOMAS MERTON, AVAILABLE ON MARCH 16, 2021!
THIS ZOOM EVENT WILL BE ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021 FROM 7:00 P.M. TO 9:00 P.M. EASTERN TIME
SEE DETAILS AND REGISTER HERE.
​The Humanity of Thomas Merton and the Key to Grace for an Impossible World

​The Thomas Merton who lived as a contemplative monk studying, writing, and praying was also a man who could be impatient, rambunctious, charming, deceptive, in pain and in love. In other words, he was completely human and in the vulnerability of that messy humanity he most felt the grace of God. That humanity can take Merton beyond the realm of mystic/saint, making him more accessible to us so that through him we may learn how to reach for God in the midst of our own imperfections. Author Sophfronia Scott considers this connection and, recognizing that so many of the issues of Merton’s time (race, peace, ambition, materialism, love) are, sometimes frustratingly so, still our issues today, will discuss how Merton’s work helps us to see through a lens of grace, allowing us to love the impossible world even as we seek to redeem it.

Contemplating Now Podcast
2021-04-15
Sophfronia’s interview with Contemplating Now Podcast host Cassidy Hall goes live in early April. A link will be posted when available.

Encountering Silence Podcast
2021-04-16
Sophfronia’s interview with Encountering Silence Podcast host Cassidy Hall goes live in early April. A link will be posted when available.

Deviate with Rolf Potts Podcast
2021-04-17
Sophfronia’s interview with Deviate Podcast host Rolf Potts will be recorded March 22. A link will be posted when available.

Alma College MFA in Creative Writing Summer Residency, Alma, MI
2021-06-17 - 2021-06-27
As director of Alma’s MFA program, Sophfronia is pleased to announce its first residency. Residency is the heart of the MFA experience. Students, faculty, visiting writers, and guest speakers from the publishing industry come together to form a diverse and dynamic artistic community teeming with the energy of a shared commitment to writing. U.S. Poet Laureate Joy Harjo will kick off the residency with a craft talk for students in the afternoon and a public reading in the evening.

Breaking the Academic Mold - Workshop, Online
2021-07-21 - 2021-07-26
Breaking the Academic Mold
Liberating the Powerful, Personal Voice Inside You
Many scholars yearn to speak to a broader audience through creative nonfiction, blogs, op-eds, and memoir. This workshop is for academics who have written mainly for peers but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more innovative way with a wider audience.
Participants in this workshop will develop their writing voice in service of topics about which they care, and about which they have some expertise. A combination of seminars, workshops, and individual instruction, our week together will help you unlearn the worst academic habits, free your creative spirit, structure your work more effectively, and speak on the page in a truer, more engaging voice. Our focus will be on releasing the professors’ voice to the public square.
This inaugural jointly sponsored Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop is by invitation only. Invited participants are scholars and teachers of religion and theology.
Due to COVID precautions, the workshop will meet in the virtual sphere via Zoom.
Leadership Team
Sophfronia Scott, Director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing, Alma College
Michael N. McGregor, Writing Faculty, Collegeville Institute
Dr. P. Kimberleigh Jordan, Associate Director of Educational Design, The Wabash Center

Emerging Writers Workshop, Online
2021-07-30 - 2021-08-01
Collegeville Institute participants (accepted via application) attend a virtual writing workshop that will involve formal seminars, individual mentorship and goal setting, peer-to-peer work, and time for participants to develop, write, and polish their first article.
After the workshop, McGregor and Scott will continue to work online with their assigned participants to develop a series of articles and/or essays to be published in Bearings Online. This work will include direct feedback on writing, Zoom sessions, and instruction on specific writing techniques. On occasion all six writers may gather together online for instruction.

Publishing in Color Conference, Online
2021-09-13 - 2021-09-17
Sophfronia Scott will present an informational session on the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing graduate program. Exact date and time TBD.

Tuesdays with Merton, Online Presentation
2021-09-14 20:00 - 21:30
Sophfronia Scott will be in conversation with members of the International Thomas Merton Society. Details TBD, but registration will be at link below when available.
Registration

Ladyparts-A Memoir: Deborah Copaken in Conversation with Sophfronia Scott
2021-09-29 19:00 - 20:00
Twenty years after her iconic memoir Shutterbabe, Deborah Copaken is at her darkly comedic nadir: battered, broke, divorcing, dissected, and dying—literally—on sexism’s battlefield as she scoops up what she believes to be her internal organs into a glass container before heading off to the hospital . . . in an UberPool.
Ladyparts is her irreverent inventory of both the female body and the body politic of womanhood in America, the story of one woman brought to her knees by the one-two-twelve punch of divorce, solo motherhood, healthcare Frogger, unaffordable childcare, shady landlords, her father’s death, college tuitions, sexual harassment, corporate indifference, ageism, sexism, and plain old bad luck. Plus seven serious illnesses, one atop the other, which provide the book’s narrative skeleton: vagina, uterus, breast, heart, cervix, brain, and lungs. She bounces back from each bum body part, finds workarounds for every setback—she transforms her home into a commune to pay rent; sells her soul for health insurance; turns FBI informant when her sexual harasser is nominated to the White House—but in her slippery struggle to survive a steep plunge off the middle-class ladder, she is suddenly awoken to what it means to have no safety net.
Side-splittingly funny one minute, a freak horror show the next, quintessentially American, Ladyparts is an era-defining memoir for our time.
Copaken will be in conversation with author (and college classmate) Sophfronia Scott.
FREE program, but donations are gratefully accepted. REGISTER HERE.
Signed copies of Ladyparts are available for purchase through the Mark Twain Store; proceeds benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum. Books will be shipped after the event. We regret that we are NOT able to ship books outside the United States as it is cost-prohibitive to do so.
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Deborah Copaken is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Shutterbabe, The Red Book, and Between Here and April. A contributing writer at The Atlantic, she was also a TV writer on Emily in Paris, a performer (The Moth, etc.), and an Emmy Award–winning news producer and photojournalist. Her photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, The Financial Times, Observer, The Wall Street Journal, The Nation, Slate, O, the Oprah Magazine, and Paris Match, among others. Her column “When Cupid Is a Prying Journalist” was adapted for the Modern Love streaming series. She lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Sophfronia Scott is the director of the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing for the 21st Century program and the author of novels and works of nonfiction including, most recently, The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, about which she spoke for the Twain House in May.

Progressive Christian Voices: Today and Tomorrow - Webinar
2021-10-06 19:00 - 20:30
A webinar hosted by Brian Allain and intended to deal with “big questions.” The session will feature three Broadleaf Books authors addressing questions such as:

Please tell us briefly about your background and a bit about your most recent book

What have you been reading lately that has most impacted you?

What do you believe are currently the most pressing issues that progressive Christians should address?

In what ways would you suggest that progressive Christians take action to address these needs?

There seems to be an increasingly wide gap between progressive and conservative Christians in the United States. Does that matter? Should we do anything about it?

Looking forward, what plans can you speak about in terms of where your own work is headed? (future books, activism, etc.)

Alma MFA Open House featuring David Lynn, Alma College, Alma, MI
2021-10-07 19:00 - 20:00
A reading by fiction writer and Kenyon Review editor emeritus David Lynn. Informational session on applying for the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing.
UPDATE: I’m reading at this event too! I’ll read from The Seeker and the Monk. More details soon.

Madeleine Mornings, Online Writers' Retreat
2021-10-16 10:00 - 14:00, 2022-01-29 10:00 - 14:00, 2022-05-07 10:00 - 14:00
Inspired by the late Madeleine L’Engle (A Wrinkle in Time), these virtual mini-retreats, co-hosted by Sarah Arthur and Sophfronia Scott, are designed to spark insight, foster connections, deepen your reading, and lend structure to your writing and spiritual life.

The Humanity of Thomas Merton - Retreat Day, Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center, West Hartford, CT
2021-10-23 09:00 - 16:30
The Humanity of Thomas Merton

Contemplative Enrichment Day
Saturday, October 23, 2021
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Sophfronia Scott, M.F.A.
Though Thomas Merton lived as a contemplative monk studying, writing, and praying, he remained vulnerable in his humanity, making him most accessible to us. Seen through the lens of grace, Merton’s teaching can help us learn to reach for God through our imperfections. During our time together, we will focus on developing a relationship with Merton’s spirituality that might deepen our own.
This program will be offered both in-person and online via Zoom. Information on how to access the program on Zoom will be sent to participants in advance.
Offering: $65 (includes lunch)
Register at this link.

Seeking Everyday Faith with Thomas Merton, Christ Church Greenwich, Greenwich, CT
2021-10-31 11:00 - 12:00
Seeking Everyday Faith with Thomas Merton

In conversation with Deborah Goodrich Royce, author Sophfronia Scott shares her deep dive into the private journals of the famous Trappist monk, and the connection she found in his pages that led to her new book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton. As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love.
Sophfronia Scott is a Harvard-educated novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in numerous publications and received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts as well as the 2021 Thomas Merton Award from the International Thomas Merton Society.

Seeking Hope with Thomas Merton, River's Edge and Centering Space, Cleveland, Ohio
2021-11-06 13:00 - 14:30
Details TBD

Writing For Your Life Conference, Online
2021-11-08 - 2021-11-12

Second Tuesdays Writers Discussion Group, Online
2021-11-09 20:00 - 21:00
Sophfronia Scott will be the featured author for November discussing a writing topic for this group hosted by Brian Allain. Details TBD. Registration at this link.

Seeking Everyday Faith with Thomas Merton, St. Bart's Church, New York, NY
2021-11-14 10:00 - 12:00
Seeking Everyday Faith with Thomas Merton

Author Sophfronia Scott shares her deep dive into the private journals of the famous Trappist monk, and the connection she found in his pages that led to her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton. As a Black woman who is not Catholic, Scott both learns from and pushes back against Merton, holding spirited, and intimate conversations on race, ambition, faith, activism, nature, prayer, friendship, and love.
Sophfronia Scott is a Harvard-educated novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in numerous publications. She has received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts as well as the 2021 Thomas Merton Award from the International Thomas Merton Society.
Note: If this event is in person, it will also be livestreamed.

Alma College MFA in Creative Writing Winter Residency, Roscommon, MI
2021-12-27 - 2022-01-06
As director of Alma’s MFA program, Sophfronia is pleased to announce its winter residency. Residency is the heart of the MFA experience. Students, faculty, visiting writers, and guest speakers from the publishing industry come together to form a diverse and dynamic artistic community teeming with the energy of a shared commitment to writing.
We’ll convene for our winter residencies at the Ralph A. MacMullan Conference Center on the shore of Higgins Lake in Michigan’s gorgeous northern woods. The center, known for its modern facilities with rustic décor, has a legacy of conservation education. We’ll be able to appreciate Michigan’s abundant natural resources and sparkling winters with activities such as ice fishing, sledding, snowshoeing, cross-country skiing and downhill skiing. Guests will have access to miles and miles of groomed cross-country ski trails located across the main road of the facility.

Eat and Read at Melba's, New Orleans, LA
2022-01-21 13:00 - 14:00
Sophfronia Scott will sign copies of The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, as part of a communal literacy awareness project. The books will be given away to community members.

16TH Annual Thomas Merton Black History Month Lecture, Bellarmine University, Louisville, KY
2022-02-22 19:00 - 20:00
Sophfronia Scott will deliver a lecture, TITLE TBD, at this annual event hosted by the Merton Center.
The event is free and open to the public.

The Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain & Ireland Conference, Oakham School, Rutland, England
2022-04-07 - 2022-04-09
Oakham Conference 2022
on the theme ‘Where is Our Hope?’
Our Residential Conference will be held at Oakham School from Thu 7th April to Sat 9th April 2022.
In his journal entry of April 15, 1965, Thomas Merton asks the question: ‘Where is our hope?’ He argues that if our hope is in a temporal and secular humanism of technological and political progress, we will be participating in the stupidity and barbarism of the despoiling of God’s creation.
For Merton, ‘our hope must be in God.’ For us in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, this answer can all too easily be equated with Christian optimism.
But for the many people who live precarious lives, not even knowing where the next meal will come from, this question is meaningless – There is no hope in this world. The very structures and support that we in the affluent West take for granted are absent. The only hope can be in heaven, in the riches of the world to come, further embedding the view that they are never for the here and now.
If, for Merton, ‘the real root of Christian hope is the presence of the Risen Lord among us’ (Merton’s circular letter of Lent, 1967), how might this be worked out in our lives, in our communities, in our world?
Sophfronia Scott. will deliver a workshop on Bearing Witness to Hope: Merton’s Reach for Simplicity

Alma College MFA in Creative Writing Summer Residency, Alma, MI
2022-06-16 - 2022-06-26
As director of Alma’s MFA program, Sophfronia is pleased to announce its summer 2022 residency. Residency is the heart of the MFA experience. Students, faculty, visiting writers, and guest speakers from the publishing industry come together to form a diverse and dynamic artistic community teeming with the energy of a shared commitment to writing. Visiting writers Deborah Copaken, Matthew Dickman, and S. Kirk Walsh will join the residency with craft talks, informal talks for students and public readings in the evening.

Chautauqua Institution Summer Lecture, Chautauqua, NY
2022-07-07 14:00 - 15:30
Sophfronia’s reflections on Thomas Merton’s wisdom and personal journals, as related in her book, The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, will inform her lecture on the theme, “Reconnecting with the Natural World.”

MFA Nation, Featured Panel, Online, 1455 Summer Literary Festival
2022-07-15 12:00 - 13:00
Over the last fifty years or so, the Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing has become one of the important ways that writers study the craft of writing, gain entry to the literary world, and connect with the world of literary agents, book publishers, and magazine editors. Join us in looking at current trends, new developments and future challenges in the world of the MFA. This session is for writers considering applying to MFA programs and also for writers looking for alternatives to the MFA but all are welcome!

REGISTER FREE at 1455litarts.org/summerfest.
