nancy shohet west:
essayist, author, mother, spouse, runner
"From under the table comes a rapping noise, like someone knocking lightly on a door. Except that it keeps repeating.
The first baseball game of the season for the third-grade league has just ended. There are eight of us sitting around the dinner table: my family of four, and my son's best friend's family of four.
The other mom and I exchange glances, both aware of exactly whence emanates this rapping sound. Our two 8-year-olds are knocking on their cups.
Not the brightly colored tumblers from which they are drinking milk. Their new molded-plastic athletic cups ..."
Excerpt from, "My 8-year-old -- girded like a gladiator", written by: Nancy Shohet West
 Nancy Shohet West; Essayist, author, mother, spouse, runner, finds humor within the mundane and minute details of everyday life. Her insights emanate through her witty and humorous approach to writing.
The pages that follow are a compilation of her essays and articles, covering everything from regional issues to personal observations to the experiences she and her son shared as 'streak runners'.
Please feel free to contact Nancy with any comments about her work, as she enjoys hearing from her readers. Her daily commentary can also be followed through her blog, "Life's a Streak Run", and through her Twitter account.
A word from Nancy: her past, her inspirations, and what's to come
When my son was 18 months old, he started taking long afternoon naps every day, and for the first time in many years, I discovered I had time on my hands. So I started writing essays about the machinations of daily life with children, spouse, home, work and community: the hilarious, the absurd, the puzzling, the magical. My family understands that if it happens to us, it’s fair game for an essay; my (former) co-workers at my (former) job, not so much, which is one reason why I’m now a freelance writer rather than an office hack.
No writer wants to focus exclusively on herself, so I write feature stories, too: journalistic accounts of events, issues, ideas and people in my community and beyond. But I always eventually drift back to the personal. And sometimes the internal and the external overlap: After I wrote an article about websites that match people with pets, my family acquired a dog. (“Why didn’t you write about websites that match people with Corvettes?” my husband implored.) An assignment to write about a group of teens who rehabilitated the home of a man who had just been disabled by a stroke led to my children and me spending the afternoon helping pull out wallboard and lay down flooring. When the city of Boston promoted a “bike-to-work” day, I found myself huffing and puffing the 25-mile route from my home to City Hall.
Which might explain why my biggest project to date is a personal story that stemmed from a feature article. In 2005, I learned about “streak runners” – men and women who commit to running a mile or more every day, 365 days a year, without ever taking a day off. Those at the top of the official streak running registry have logged more than 30 years of daily running. Intriguing, I thought, and asked my 8-year-old son: “Want to try running a mile every day for a year?”
He did want to try. Together we took on the challenge. I’m now crafting a memoir documenting our year-long experiment, while also continuing with essays about family life and articles about external events. If I witness it, hear about it, or experience it, you’re likely to find it somewhere in my writing.
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