Floyd Skloot (born July 6, 1947) is an American poet, novelist, and memoirist. Some of his work concerns his experience with neurological damage caused by a virus contracted in 1988.
His book ''In the Shadow of Memory'' gained favorable critical notice, leading to more reviews of the following book, ''A World of Light'', for the quality of his writing and for the new life he created after illness.
His poetry is published in general circulation and literary magazines.
Early life and family
Floyd Skloot was born July 6, 1947 in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, New York. His parents were Harry and Lillian, née Rosen.
Skloot received a B.A from
Franklin & Marshall College
Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) is a private liberal arts college in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It employs 175 full-time faculty members and has a student body of approximately 2,400 full-time students. It was founded upon the merger of Fran ...
in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and an M.A. in English at
Southern Illinois University
Southern Illinois University is a system of public universities in the southern region of the U.S. state of Illinois. Its headquarters is in Carbondale, Illinois.
Board of trustees
The university is governed by the nine member SIU Board of Tr ...
, where he studied with the Irish poet
Thomas Kinsella
Thomas Kinsella (4 May 192822 December 2021) was an Irish poet, translator, editor, and publisher. Born outside Dublin, Kinsella attended University College Dublin before entering the civil service. He began publishing poetry in the early 1950s ...
. In 2006, Franklin & Marshall College awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree. After living in New York and places in the Midwest, Skloot moved to Portland, Oregon in 1984. He worked as a public policy analyst for 16 years. He first married in 1970 and is the father of nonfiction writer
Rebecca Skloot. In 1988 he was disabled by neurological damage caused by a virus. In the years following this event, his first marriage ended. He is now married to Beverly Hallberg. Skloot and Hallberg live in
Oregon
Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...
.
Career as author
Skloot is the author of 20 books, including the memoirs ''In the Shadow of Memory'', (2003) ''A World of Light'', (2005), ''The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life'' (2008), and ''Revertigo: An Off-Kilter Memoir'' (2014). His memoir, ''In the Shadow of Memory'', gained high praise in a review by Julia Keller, who said "the glory of Skloot's prose is that, even when it is lush and seemingly digressive, it is ruggedly specific." Her only criticism was his reliance on experts other than himself, as his "insights are not available in textbooks or seminars. And they grace this powerful and anguished book, this elegy to a lost mind."
The next memoir, ''A World of Light'', was reviewed by Mark Essig, who noted that the series of essays covered Skloot's present life, visiting his mother who is altered by Altzheimer's Disease, and recollecting his own childhood events, demonstrates that "Skloot knows something of grace, but he has left failure far behind. He has painstakingly rebuilt his life and his art, shaping the experience of crippling illness into dazzling literature."
A subsequent memoir, ''Revertigo: An Off-Kilter Memoir'', comprising 14 essays previously published in literary journals, evoked praise from Suzanne Koven, who says that "His essays weave smoothly through pivotal episodes in his life as a son, father, reader, writer, husband, and patient." Another reviewer, Claire Dederer, praises the last portion of the book which focuses directly on the physical experience of vertigo, saying it is "an elegant meditation on balance, aging, helplessness, dependency and, especially, love." She does not find that the metaphor of vertigo works well for the entire book.
His recent poetry collections are ''The End of Dreams'' (2006), ''The Snow's Music'' (2008), and ''Approaching Winter'' (2015), all from Louisiana State University Press; ''Close Reading'' (2014) from Eyewear Publishing in the UK; and ''Selected Poems: 1970-2005'' from Tupelo Press (2008).
Skloot has contributed to publications including ''
The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'', ''
The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', ''
Harper's'', ''
Poetry
Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
'', ''
The Sewanee Review
''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism.
History
''T ...
'', ''
Southern Review
''The Southern Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established by Robert Penn Warren in 1935 at the behest of Charles W. Pipkin and funded by Huey Long as a part of his investment in Louisiana State University. It publishes ficti ...
'', ''
Boulevard
A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway.
Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls.
In American usage, boulevards may ...
'', ''
Virginia Quarterly Review
The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion" ...
'', ''The Hopkins Review'', ''
Hudson Review
''The Hudson Review'' is a quarterly journal of literature and the arts.
History
It was founded in 1947 in New York, by William Arrowsmith, Joseph Deericks Bennett, and George Frederick Morgan. The first issue was introduced in the spring of ...
'', and ''
Southwest Review
The ''Southwest Review'' is a literary journal published quarterly, based on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas, Texas. It is the third oldest literary quarterly in the United States. The current editor-in-chief is Greg Browndervi ...
''. Reviews of his books have appeared in the ''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'' and
Harvard Review
''Harvard Review'' is a biannual literary journal published by Houghton Library at Harvard University.
History
In 1986 Stratis Haviaras, curator of the Woodberry Poetry Room at Harvard University, founded a quarterly periodical called ''Erato''. ...
. Skloot and his daughter co-edited ''The Best American Science Writing 2011'' for HarperCollins/Ecco, published in September 2011. He published his first collection of short stories in 2011, ''Cream of Kohlrabi'', from Tupelo Press.
His most recent novel, ''The Phantom of Thomas Hardy'', was published in October 2016 by the University of Wisconsin Press. It is a literary romp through Dorsetshire and Hardy's tangled love life with a gateway between real and imagined lives. Floyd, an American writer, and his wife, Beverly, are pondering the enigma of a fictional character living in a factual building when Floyd is approached by Hardy himself—despite his death in 1928.
Jeanne Marie Laskas says that "Only the inventive Floyd Skloot could come up with—and gorgeously pull off—an experiment like The Phantom of Thomas Hardy. With the intensity of a fevered dream, he seeks his own self-integration after brain trauma while digging around, assembling, and imagining the history of the elusive Hardy. Blending memoir, reportage, literary analysis, and historical fiction (who does that?) Skloot dazzles with the depth of his research, and enchants with his signature vivid, precise, and thoroughly delicious prose." National Book Review was impressed by "how flawlessly he integrates researched material into his fiction and nonfiction." and commends his "enviable ability to combine biography and personal narrative" in the scheme of a mystery novel. Kirkus Reviews was not as impressed, saying "A sporadically insightful, intermittently entertaining blend of memoir, literary history, and fabulist speculation."
Honors and awards
He received The Emily Clark Balch Prize in Poetry in 2000 from ''
Virginia Quarterly Review
The ''Virginia Quarterly Review'' is a quarterly literary magazine that was established in 1925 by James Southall Wilson, at the request of University of Virginia president E. A. Alderman. This ''"National Journal of Literature and Discussion" ...
''.
His work was included in ''The Penguin Book of the Sonnet'', published in 2001.
His awards include the PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction in 2004 for ''In the Shadow of Memory''. In 2004, he was a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow in residence at their Study Center in Bellagio, Italy. ''In the Shadow of Memory'' was named the Best Nonfiction Book of 2003 by the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
''.
In May 2006 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from his alma mater, Franklin & Marshall College.
His piece ''A Measure of Acceptance'' was included in ''The Touchstone Anthology of Contemporary Creative Nonfiction'',
He received three
Pushcart Prizes in 2009 and two other years, the Independent Publishers Book Award in Creative Nonfiction, two Pacific Northwest Booksellers Awards in Poetry, and two Oregon Book Awards.
In January 2010, Skloot was listed by
Poets & Writers Poets & Writers, Inc. is one of the largest nonprofit literary organizations in the United States serving poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers. The organization publishes a bi-monthly magazine called ''Poets & Writers Magazine'', ...
as "one of fifty of the most inspiring authors in the world;" he was described by this sentence: "Despite virus-induced brain damage, he writes with surprising tenderness and candor about recreating a life for himself and, in the process, makes us think about our own." Also in 2010, his article ''The Melody lingers on'' was included in ''The Best of The Best American Science Writing'', a book whose entries were selected by the editors of the first ten books published in
The Best American Science Writing
''The Best American Science Writing'' was a yearly anthology of popular science articles published in the United States, which commenced publication in 2000. The book series was published by Ecco Press (HarperCollins) and concluded after the 2012 i ...
series.
He was honored with the McGinnis-Ritchie Award from ''Southwest Review'' in 2016 for his essay La Serenata and in a prior year.
He has also been a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover Award in Nonfiction, the
PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay The PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay is awarded by the PEN America (formerly PEN American Center) to an author for a book of original collected essays. The award was founded by PEN Member and author Barbaralee Diamonstein a ...
, and the Paterson Poetry Prize.
He received awards from Creative Nonfiction Magazine, Prairie Schooner, and other publications.
His work has been included twice each in ''
The Best American Essays ''The Best American Essays'' is a yearly anthology of magazine articles published in the United States.Robert Atwan (ed.), Adam Gopnick (guest ed.). ''The Best American Essays 2008'', Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2008. It was started in 1986 and is ...
'' in 1993 and 2000, ''
The Best American Science Writing
''The Best American Science Writing'' was a yearly anthology of popular science articles published in the United States, which commenced publication in 2000. The book series was published by Ecco Press (HarperCollins) and concluded after the 2012 i ...
'' in 2000 and 2003, and ''The Best Spiritual Writing'', and three times in ''The Best Food Writing'' in 2011 annual anthologies.
Works by Floyd Skloot were included in ''The Art of the Essay''.
Written works
Creative nonfiction
*''The Night-Side: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and The Illness Experience'', Story Line Press, 1996.
*''In the Shadow of Memory'', University of Nebraska Press, 2003. Reprinted in UNP's Bison Books paperback series in 2004.
*''The World of Light'', University of Nebraska Press, 2005. Reprinted in UNP's Bison Books paperback series in 2011.
*''The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer's Life'', University of Nebraska Press, 2008. Reprinted in UNP's Bison Books paperback series in 2011.
*''Revertigo: An Off-Kilter Memoir'', University of Wisconsin Press, 2014.
Poetry collections
*''Music Appreciation'', University Press of Florida, 1994.
*''The Fiddler's Trance'', Bucknell University Press, 2001.
*''The Evening Light'', Story Line Press, 2001.
*''Approximately Paradise'', Tupelo Press, 2005.
*''The End of Dreams'', Louisiana State University Press, 2006.
*''Selected Poems: 1970-2005'', Tupelo Press, 2008.
*''The Snow's Music'', Louisiana State University Press, 2008.
*''Close Reading'', Eyewear Publishing, UK, 2014.
*''Approaching Winter,'' Louisiana State University Press, 2015.
*''Far West,'' Louisiana State University Press, tentatively scheduled for 2019
Fiction
;Novels
*''Pilgrim's Harbor'', Story Line Press, 1992.
*''Summer Blue'', Story Line Press, 1994.
*''The Open Door'', Story Line Press, 1997.
*''Patient 002'', Rager Media, 2007.
*''The Phantom of Thomas Hardy'', University of Wisconsin Press, 2016.
;Short stories
*''Cream of Kohlrabi'', Tupelo Press, 2011.
As editor
*''The Best American Science Writing 2011'', co-edited with Rebecca Skloot, HarperCollins/Ecco Press, September 2011
References
External links
Skloot's Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Skloot, Floyd
20th-century American novelists
21st-century American novelists
American memoirists
American male novelists
1947 births
Living people
Novelists from Oregon
Franklin & Marshall College alumni
Southern Illinois University alumni
20th-century American poets
21st-century American poets
American male poets
American male essayists
20th-century American essayists
21st-century American essayists
20th-century American male writers
21st-century American male writers