Floyd Skloot: "The Moonlight Manuscript, 1696"

The VPR Poem of the Week is Floyd Skloot’s “The Moonlight Manuscript, 1696,” which appeared in the Spring/Summer 2003 issue (Volume III, Number 2) of Valparaiso Poetry Review.

Floyd Skloot is the author of fifteen books, including poetry collections 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), and The Snow’s Music (Louisiana State University Press, 2008); volumes of memoirs In the Shadow of Memory (University of Nebraska Press, 2003), A World of Light (University of Nebraska Press, 2005), and The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life (University of Nebraska Press, 2008); and the novels Summer Blue (Story Line Press, 1994) and Patient 002 (Rager Media, 2007).

He has had poetry and works of nonfiction appear in numerous magazines, including American Scholar, Atlantic Monthly, Boulevard, Creative Nonfiction, Georgia Review, Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, Prairie Schooner, Sewanee Review, Shenandoah, Southern Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review. He also contributes book reviews to the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Harvard Review, New York Times Book Review, Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, and other publications.

Floyd Skloot’s awards include the PEN USA Literary Award in Creative Nonfiction; the Independent Publishers Book Award in Creative Nonfiction; Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Book Award; Oregon Book Awards in both Creative Nonfiction and Poetry; three Pushcart Prizes; two appearances in The Best American Essays and The Best American Science Writing, and once each in The Best Spiritual Writing, The Best Food Writing, and The Art of the Essay.

Both The Wink of the Zenith: The Shaping of a Writer’s Life and Selected Poems: 1970-2005 are among the twelve books shortlisted for the 2009 Pacific NW Booksellers Association Book Awards to be announced next month.

Tuesday of each week “One Poet’s Notes” highlights an excellent work by a poet selected from the archives of Valparaiso Poetry Review, except when other posts with news or updates preempt the usual appearance of this item, with the recommendation that readers revisit it. Please check the sidebar to view the list of poets and works that have been past “Poem of the Week” selections. Additionally, readers are reminded that VPR pages are best read with the browser font preference in which they were set, 12 pt. Times New Roman, in order to guarantee the stanza alignment and the breaks of longer lines are preserved.