Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and contemplative thinker. She is the founding director of Alma College’s low-residency MFA program and has published novels, essays, and nonfiction books, including The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas Merton, which won the 2021 Thomas Merton Louie Award from the International Thomas Merton Society. She 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, and she is finishing a PhD in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University. She began her career as an award-winning magazine journalist for Time. Three of her essays are listed among the Notables in the Best American Essays series