Coming Soon:
Main Street Rag Publishing Company will be publishing my latest book, RUNNING DOWN BROKEN CEMENT in August, 2014. It is available now for a limited time at a discount presale price of $8 (list price will be $14). The book will be shipped in August.
Click here to go directly to my author’s page.
Or, if the link is cranky, you can go to www.mainstreetrag.com, click on MSR Online Bookstore, Coming Soon, and scroll down to the image of the book.
RUNNING DOWN BROKEN CEMENT is a collection of narrative poems inspired by my career as a social worker for the State of New Jersey, where I responded to allegations of child abuse and assisted homeless families to find permanent housing in the community.
Kelley Jean White, MD, has said this about the book:
Nancy Scott is truly a voice crying in the wilderness, the American wilderness of broken cement and breaking lives. She has earned her voice by years of work among the poorest of our poor, with those struggling on the edges of our broken systems of health, education, and welfare. She has listened carefully and now bears witness to the sufferings and triumphs of our neighbors, those neighbors we have turned our backs on and failed to love as we love ourselves. You may need to read this book slowly, a few poems at a time, but you need to read it. These are not pretty stories–they will trouble your spirit and break your heart.
Scott’s people will stay with you, those who are hungry, unhoused, sometimes angry, yet often wise and forgiving. You’ll watch Rosalita tenderly care for a child despite her broken body, meet Andre and Woody, Tyrone and Calvin, Danielle and Balfour, young people struggling to find reasons and ways to live on our bleakest streets, wait with Marisol at the welfare office and free clinic. You’ll also visit Myra, nearly eighty, who counsels parents of suicides, Roland, who’s learning to cook ‘as a blind man, Mary, who at 81 pleads to have her apartment back…
Lake Carnegie, Late Afternoon
Orange sky
slips below the tree line.
College oarsmen, stroke by stroke,
slice ever-graying water.
On the road, arms awhirl,
a legless man, wheelchair-bound,
placard round his neck—
I’m a homeless Vet.
All race against the fading light,
resolute on course.
One outwitting midnight’s chill,
others to the boathouse.
I invite you to continue through the site for selections of my poetry, my artwork, and my books. And as you browse, consider buying a book for yourself or a friend, or beautiful reproductions of my artwork to linger over.
Do you need a poet for your next reading, a speaker for your next event, a workshop facilitator, or help with compiling your poetry into a book?
Contact me at nscott29@aol.com.