Selected Poems

by Floyd Skloot

Poetry. Born in Brooklyn in 1947, Floyd Skloot has written five books of poetry, three memoirs, and three novels. His poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Harper's Magazine, Poetry, Georgia Review, Hudson Review, and most of the leading journals in this country as well as overseas. He is a winner of the Emily Clark Balch Prize in Poetry from Virginia Quarterly Review, and the Emily Dickinson Award from the Poetry Society of America. Floyd Skloot's memoir, In the Shadow of Memory, won the PEN Center USA Literary Award, Independent Publisher Book Award, and was named one of the best books of 2003 by the Chicago Tribune. "[Floyd] Skloot continues to be a highly disciplined poet, confronting chaos to capture and tame his enemy. There is ferocity living in his forms, coexisting with the sweetness of vanquishing sentiment"--Prairie Schooner.

Genres: Poetry

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

About the author

Floyd was born in Brooklyn, NY, in 1947, and moved to Long Beach, NY, ten years later. He graduated from Franklin & Marshall College with a B.A. in English, and completed an M.A. in English at Southern Illinois University, where he studied with the Irish poet Thomas Kinsella. From 1972 until becoming disabled by viral-borne brain damage in 1988, Floyd worked in the field of public policy in Illinois, Washington, and Oregon. He began publishing poetry in 1970, fiction in 1975, and essays in 1990. His work has appeared in many major literary journals in the US and abroad. His seventeen books have won wide acclaim and numerous awards, and are included in many high school and college curricula. In May, 2006 he received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from Franklin & Marshall College.


An Oregonian since 1984, Floyd moved from Portland to rural Amity when he married Beverly Hallberg in 1993. They lived in a cedar yurt in the middle of twenty hilly acres of woods for 13 years before moving back to Portland.


Floyd's daughter, the nonfiction writer Rebecca Skloot, lives in Memphis, TN, where she teaches creative writing at the University of Memphis and works as a freelance writer. Her book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, was published by Crown Books in February, 2010 and became an immediate NY Times and Indie Bound bestseller. Her work has been included in the Best Creative Nonfiction, Best Food Writing and Women’s Best Friend anthologies as well as appearing regularly in the New York Times Magazine, Popular Science, O: Oprah’s Magazine and elsewhere. Her boyfriend, writer and actor David Prete, author of Say That to My Face (Norton, 2003), recently completed his second book of fiction and teaches writers how to improve their public reading skills. Floyd's stepson, Matthew Coale, lives with his wife and two children in Vancouver, Washington.


Floyd's current projects include new poems and essays that are slowly shaping into a new book.

Reviews

[Una Juniper · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the perfect read for me at this point in my life because it was what I needed to relax before the craziness of school and finals hit me again. It was the perfect read for lounging in the bath or sitting by the window on a cold miserable day. I would recommend to anyone of any age!

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection. My favorite poems are the hallucinatory ones where he sees dead authors/poets. There is lots of moving poetry. I wouldn't call this collection dark in tone, but there is a darkness or somberness to the mood with dealings of death and illness, yet there are lots of poems of hope and light, which makes this book beautifully balanced.