Without a Crystal Stair: Through Moments in the Chimes of Time

Autobiography:

In June 1988, Dr. Sarah Smith Ducksworth received an Ed. D. with honors from Rutgers University in New Brunswick. Her dissertation received a coveted "Outstanding Dissertation" award from the alumni organization of the Rutgers Graduate School of Education.

In the fall of 1988, Sarah obtained a tenure track teaching position at Kean University, a state school. During her long tenure in there, she taught a wide range of courses: developmental writing, ESL composition, freshman composition, world literature, African American literature, African American women writers, women's studies seminar, 18th century British literature, writing about literature, and senior seminar.

Sarah has published more than two dozen academic and human interest articles in such venues as Black Chronicle of Education, Sage, Masterplots, and The New York Times. In 1995, she published a chapter in a widely circulated and acclaimed literary text entitled The Stowe Debate: Rhetorics in Uncle Tom's Cabin. Across the decade of the 1990s, she conducted extensive research on the Underground Road - partially funded by state history grants and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2005, she wrote the foreword to the 5th edition of William Still's Underground Railroad. And, in 2012, she appeared as an expert commentator in a PBS documentary based on the life of William Still.

In 2015 Sarah published her first book of poetry which was favorably reviewed by several literary critics and profiled in the a local New Jersey newspaper and in the Star Ledger, the largest New Jersey state-wide newspaper. The book, then entitled No Crystal Stair, received a gold seal award for literary excellence from Trafford Publishers. Since 2015, the highly rated book with five stars in several venues such as Goodreads and amazon.com has gone through several name and cover changes. This newest reissue has been updated and revised.

After serving students for nearly thirty years and conducting intensive research in the areas of African American history and literature, Sarah retired in February 2016.

Book synopsis:

This book traces three stages of the poet's life: The beginning-when all things were new and the dream of a bright future was vivid; Adulthood - when the meaning of her life was unclear and darkness lurked in corners of societies and on the internet to dim her hope for a better world; and Fall harvest - a time when the poet looked backward in gratitude for people who had nurtured her and helped her understand her life's purpose.