Sophfronia Scott

Chautauqua Institution Summer Lecture, Chautauqua, NY
2022-07-07 14:00 - 15:30 (America/New_York) | MI
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 | MI
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.

Breaking the Academic Mold Workshop, Collegeville Institute, Collegeville, MN
2022-07-25 - 2022-07-31 | MI
Applications for this jointly sponsored Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop are closed.
This writing workshop is for scholars of religion and theology who have written exclusively or primarily in the scholarly genre for other scholars of religion but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more creative way with a wider audience.
Many scholars yearn to speak to a broader audience through creative nonfiction, blogs, op-eds, and memoir. Many scholars want to write with more clarity and imagination. Participants in this workshop will develop their writing voice in service to topics they care about, and for which they have passion and curiosity. A combination of plenary, small group and individual instruction, our week together will help scholars free the creative spirit, structure their writing 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, giving permission to be imaginative, and finding new ways of being inspired.

Merton on Thursday, Online Talk
2022-09-01 14:00 - 15:30 | MI
This is an online presentation of the talk originally planned for the UK Merton conference scheduled for April 2022 that was cancelled.
Go to https://www.thomasmertonsociety.org.uk/
for Zoom link details.
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

The Write of Your Life Writers' Retreat, Veneto, Italy
2022-09-18 - 2022-09-24 | MI
Join Sophfronia in the idyllic countryside of Italy for ‘The Write of Your Life’ – A one week Writers Retreat. Our home will be at the luxurious Hotel Villa Margherita in Mira.
UPDATE FROM JANET SIMMONDS:
I’m pleased to say we are all systems go for the Writer’s Retreat in Italy next September. Sophfronia and I have been delighted by the response we’ve had from our writer friends and colleagues.
Here are the important pieces of information that you need to know:
Dates of trip: 18-24 September, 2022
Program Director: Sophfronia Scott
Full program here: https://wp.me/p97CFs-ee

The cost of the retreat is as follows:

US $ 4500 / Euros € 3950 – Double room for single use (one person)
US $ 4800 / Euros € 4300 – Junior Suite per person (two people sharing)
US $ 3900 / Euros € 3500 – Smaller Twin room per person (two people sharing)

To reserve your place a deposit is required of US $ 1500. You can make the payment by clicking on the following ‘Pay Pal’ link – paypal.me/GrandTouristLtd
Please complete the attached booking form and return it to us – a scanned copy is fine.

Don’t hesitate to let me or Sophfronia know if you have any questions, we’d be delighted to help.

Always remembering the poetic and magical words of Lord Byron,

‘But words are things,
And a small drop of ink,
Falling, like dew,
Upon a thought
Produces that which makes thousands,
Perhaps millions, think’

Feel free to reach out to us via zoom, e-mail, text or even the old fashioned telephone, if you have any questions at all.
Once you are signed up we will invite you to join our private ‘Alumni Facebook Page’ where we share ideas, thoughts, book recommendations etc

Kindest regards

Janet Simmonds
janet@grand-tourist.com
www.grand-tourist.com
View the full brochure at this link.

A Circle of Quiet, the Madeleine L'Engle Writing Retreat, Litchfield, CT
2022-09-30 - 2022-10-01 | MI
Join us this fall in New England for two full days of writing, reflection, and community.
We’re finally gathering in person! We can’t wait to see you Friday and Saturday, Sept 30 and Oct 1, at Wisdom House in Litchfield CT near Madeleine’s beloved farmhouse, Crosswicks.
Program Registration includes two full days (9 AM to 5 PM) of thoughtful content, facilitated cohorts, solo writing time, and refreshments, all at the gorgeous retreat center buildings and grounds.* Depending on your lodging choices, your time on location can stretch to three or even four days–a true retreat!
Come with your own writing projects or inspire yourself with our curated prompts inspired by Madeleine’s first Crosswicks Journal, A Circle of Quiet.
Details: https://lenglewritingretreats.com/?page_id=126

Thomas Merton and the Transformative Power of Love, Online Retreat
2022-12-10 12:00 - 15:00 | MI
This retreat is part of The Abbey of the Arts’ 10 month series The Mystical Heart: Love as a Creative Force. Register for each retreat individually or for the full series with an additional facilitated forum for sharing between retreats.
“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character: Love is my name.” –Thomas Merton
Love, as Thomas Merton learned, truly is a many splendored thing. He loved God and trusted in the love of God, but he realized love’s true nature only when he fell in love himself. It changed the contemplative monk to the core and made him view God’s grace and his relation to it in new ways that he felt impelled to share in his writing.
The 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, yes, in love. In other words, he was completely human and in the vulnerability of that messy humanity he most felt the grace of God. Merton came to understand that when we can express ourselves as beloved children of God, we acquire a wholeness that allows us to bring the best of who we are into the world. How do we make this connection and sense God’s love for us? How do earthly and spiritual love fit together?
Join us on December 10th, Merton’s feast day. We will consider these questions through close readings, journaling from writing prompts, and exploring images of ourselves in which we look and feel beloved. Recognizing that so many of the issues of Merton’s time surrounding love are, sometimes frustratingly so, still our issues today, we will also discuss how Merton’s work helps us to see through a lens of grace, allowing us to access love for ourselves, for others, and even for the impossible world.
The retreat will be recorded for those who register and made available within 48-72 hours of the program. We will send a notification when it is ready for viewing.

Alma College MFA in Creative Writing Winter Residency, Roscommon, MI
2023-01-03 - 2023-01-13 | MI
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.

Growing your Writing Career, Alma College, Alma, MI
2023-01-24 16:00 - 18:00 | MI
Soon you’ll earn your undergraduate degree. What’s next? If you have a passion for writing, join us in learning more about Alma’s MFA in Creative Writing program. A light dinner will be served.
Reserve your spot here!

Join Sophfronia Scott, the director of Alma’s Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Creative Writing program, and faculty mentor Robert Vivian for this in-person event. Learn about the program’s curriculum, its low-residency model, the exciting locations where the residencies take place, and how an MFA may fit with your interest in writing, teaching, and publishing.

Madeleine Mornings, Online Writers' Retreat
2023-01-28 10:00 - 14:00, 2023-05-06 10:00 - 14:00 | MI
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.

Learn about the MFA Creative Writing Residency: Virtual Open House
2023-02-16 19:00 - 20:00 | MI
Join Alma College MFA faculty, students, and program director as they share highlights from the recent winter residency and preview the summer residency set for June 2023 and the Venice, Italy residency set for January 2024! The discussion will also cover how to apply and join this diverse and dynamic artistic community teeming with the energy of a shared commitment to writing.
Register here to receive the Zoom link!

Writing for Your Life Conference, Atlanta, GA
2023-03-06 - 2023-03-07 | MI
Sophfronia will be available at a sponsored table at the conference to provide information and discuss the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing with interested writers.

Sophfronia in Conversation with Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Virtual Event, Mark Twain House and Museum
2023-03-07 19:00 - 20:00 | MI
Award-winning author and called “one of the best writers of her generation,” by Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Sophfronia Scott is back with Wild, Beautiful, and Free, a fresh retelling of Jane Eyre that follows a mixed-race woman fighting for her freedom and her inheritance in a nineteenth century America that does not believe she deserves either. Joined by fellow award-winning author, Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa, Scott will discuss her novel and how she brought the Civil War era to life and delivered a powerful story of perseverance, identity, and self-empowerment.
Virtual: $5 non-members and members. Admission price will be deducted from your signed copy of the book with purchase. REGISTER HERE.
Copies of Wild, Beautiful, and Free 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.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Sophfronia Scott grew up in Lorain, Ohio, a hometown she shares with author Toni Morrison. She holds a BA in English from Harvard and an MFA in writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. She 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.
Sophfronia’s other books include The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, 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 is the recipient of a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts. She has taught at Regis University’s Mile High MFA and Bay Path University’s MFA in Creative Nonfiction. She’s also delivered craft talks and held workshops at the Yale Writers’ Workshop, Meacham Writers’ Workshop, and the Hobart Festival of Women Writers. Currently, Sophfronia is the founding director of Alma College’s MFA in Creative Writing, a low-residency graduate program based in Alma, Michigan. She lives in Sandy Hook, Connecticut where she continues to fight a losing battle against the weeds in her flower beds.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR: Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa was born in Puerto Rico and raised in New York City. She is a product of the Puerto Rican communities on the island and in the South Bronx. She attended the New York City public school system and received her academic degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and Queens College–City University of New York. As a child she was sent to live with her grandparents in Puerto Rico where she was introduced to the culture of rural Puerto Rico, including the storytelling that came naturally to the women in her family, especially the older women. Much of her work is based on her experiences during this time. Dahlma taught creative writing and language and literature in the New York City public school system before becoming a young-adult librarian. She has also taught creative writing to teenagers, adults, and senior citizens throughout New York while honing her own skills as a fiction writer and memoirist.
The hardcover edition of Daughters of the Stone was listed as a 2010 Finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize.  In 2020, the self-published the paperback edition of Daughters of the Stone won the 16th Annual National Indie Excellence® Awards for Multicultural Fiction. In 2021, she was awarded the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship for Fiction, a City Artists Corps Grant, and the Letras Boricuas Fellow. Her short stories appear in several anthologies, including: Bronx Memoir Project, Latina Authors and Their Muses, Chicken Soup for the Latino Soul, Breaking Ground: Anthology of Puerto Rican Women Writers in New York 1980-2012, and Growing Up Girl. Dahlma’s work also appears in various literary magazines such as the Afro-Hispanic Review and Kweli Journal. English and Spanish language editions of her second novel, A Woman of Endurance, were released by Amistad, HarperCollins. The paperback English edition of A Woman of Endurance will be released April 25, 2023. Since her retirement, Dahlma continues to dedicate herself to her writing, speaking engagements, panels, and workshops. She resides in the Bronx with her husband, photographer Jonathan Lessuck.
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Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from CT Humanities; the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign; The Hartford; The Mark Twain Foundation; The National Endowment for the Humanities; and Travelers.

Episcopal House of Bishops Retreat, Camp McDowell, Nauvoo, AL
2023-03-11 - 2023-03-14 | MI
Sophfronia will address the bishops on discipleship and making faith connections through various forms of storytelling.

The Mystical Experience of Everyday Living - Retreat Day, Holy Family Passionist Retreat Center, West Hartford, CT
2023-03-18 09:00 - 16:30 | MI
The Mystical Experience of Everyday Living

Saturday, March 18, 2023
9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (ET)
Sophfronia Scott, M.F.A.
Mysticism is often viewed as the privileged experience of a few chosen, holy individuals. But German Jesuit, Karl Rahner, wrote about “everyday mysticism,” and Carmelite Sister Ruth Burrows described the mystical life simply as “God touching the depths of our being.” God is closer than we think–to all of us. We’ll explore everyday mysticism as life events filled with God’s unmistakable presence. Sharing Thomas Merton’s experiences and her own, Sophfronia will help attendees notice, identify, and appreciate mystical encounters in their everyday lives.
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.
This program will include a morning and an afternoon session of Centering Prayer.
Offering: $65 (includes lunch)

Let's Just Write! An Uncommon Writers Conference, Chicago, IL
2023-03-25 - 2023-03-26 | MI

Woodstock Bookfest, Boiceville, NY
2023-03-31 - 2023-04-01 | MI
Panel: Spiritual Practice and Social Consciousness
In these complex and troubling days many of us yearn for a stronger connection between our social consciousness and our spirituality. Knowing that real sustainable change is ultimately up to each of us, what then are the spiritual practices that can inspire and sustain us, empowering us to have lasting impact during this turbulent era? Luminary teachers, activists, and writers, bring their knowledge, heart, and soul to shed light on the intrinsic connection between spirituality and social change. How are these demanding times the perfect catalyst for deepening both our practice and our social impact?

Eat and Read at Melba's, New Orleans, LA
2023-04-14 12:00 - 14:00 | MI
Sophfronia Scott will sign copies of her new novel Wild, Beautiful, and Free, as part of a communal literacy awareness project. The books will be given away to community members.

The Sacred Art of Writing, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI
2023-04-25 - 2023-04-27 | MI

Historical Novel Society, San Antonio, TX
2023-06-06 - 2023-06-09 | MI

Alma College MFA in Creative Writing Summer Residency, Alma, MI
2023-06-15 - 2023-06-25 | MI
As director of Alma’s MFA program, Sophfronia is pleased to announce its summer 2023 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 will join the residency with craft talks, informal talks for students and public readings in the evening.

Breaking the Academic Mold Workshop, Lake Junaluska, NC
2023-07-10 - 2023-07-16 | MI
A jointly sponsored Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop.
This writing workshop is for scholars of religion and theology who have written exclusively or primarily in the scholarly genre for other scholars of religion but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more creative way with a wider audience.
Many scholars yearn to speak to a broader audience through creative nonfiction, blogs, op-eds, and memoir. Many scholars want to write with more clarity and imagination. Participants in this workshop will develop their writing voice in service to topics they care about, and for which they have passion and curiosity. A combination of plenary, small group and individual instruction, our week together will help scholars free the creative spirit, structure their writing 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, giving permission to be imaginative, and finding new ways of being inspired.

Glen Workshop, Seattle, WA
2023-07-16 - 2023-07-22 | MI
At the Glen, daily morning workshops offer artists at all skill levels an opportunity to develop their craft in a wide variety of genres with acclaimed faculty. Meanwhile, morning seminars offer substantive conversation and engagement with art, mystery, and faith. Afternoons and evenings feature a smorgasbord of readings, field trips, panel conversations, concerts, open mics, and worship services incorporating the arts.

Sophfronia will be on the faculty teaching a workshop for this year’s event.

Thomas Merton Quiet Day Retreat, Adelynrood Center, Byfield, MA
2023-08-09 | MI
The Humanity of Thomas Merton and the Key to Grace for an Impossible World: A Meditative Day of Writing and Reflection

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 amid our own imperfections. Author Sophfronia Scott considers this spiritual connection and 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.
During our time together Sophfronia will provide participants with writing prompts and meditations that will lead them to consider their own grace and spirituality and how they might cultivate a deeper sense of unity and connection.

Thomas Merton Retreat, Wisdom House, Litchfield, CT
2023-09-09 | MI
The Humanity of Thomas Merton and the Key to Grace for an Impossible World
With Sophfronia Scott
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.
During our time together Sophfronia will also work with us on how everyone can develop our
own relationship with Merton’s spirituality in a way that will help deepen our own and allow us
to tune into the unity Merton sensed during his life changing epiphany at 4 th and Walnut.

Inkubator Writing Conference, Cleveland, Ohio
2023-09-22 - 2023-09-23 | MI
The Alma College MFA in Creative Writing is a sponsor for this event. Sophfronia will be present to provide information about the program.
“Literary Cleveland’s Inkubator Writing Conference is one of the largest free writing festivals in the country.”

Reading and Book Signing, Lorain, Ohio
2023-09-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Lorain Historical Society, 329 West 10th Street, Lorain, OH, United States
Sophfronia will be at the Lorain Historical Society on Friday, September 22nd at 7pm for a book signing event for her novel Wild, Beautiful, and Free. This event is free to attend and books will be available for purchase.

Thomas Merton and the Transformative Power of Love, The Meditatio Centre, London, England
2023-09-30 | MI
“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.”
–Thomas Merton
The 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, yes, in love. In other words, he was completely human and in the vulnerability of that messy humanity he most felt the grace of God. How do we make this connection and sense God’s love for us? How do earthly and spiritual love fit together? We will consider these questions during our time together.
10.30 am– 4.00 pm UK Time at the Centre and Online
Cost £40
Concessions £20
Online £25

Wisconsin Writers Association Conference, Waukesha and Brookfield, Wisconsin
2023-10-06 - 2023-10-07 | MI
Sophfronia will represent the Alma College MFA in Creative Writing at a sponsorship table.
