By Eric Lagatta
The Columbus Dispatch
With her agent shopping her debut novel, Sophfronia Scott felt the sting intensify as the string of rejection letters piled up.
As many as 20 publishers had turned down her book, she said, before St. Martin’s Press showed interest in the story of a black woman whose brother struggles with drug addiction.
The success boosted Scott’s confidence, and now the Lorain native is anticipating the release of two more works: Her second novel — a retelling of the French classic “Dangerous Liaisons,” set in 1940s Harlem — will be published by William Morrow this year, a HarperCollins imprint; and next year the Ohio State University Press will publish an essay collection, based partly on her experience living in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, at the time of the 2012 attack on the elementary school, which her son attended.
