About the Author
Phyllis M Skoy has been writing throughout her life. However, it wasn’t until 2013 that she submitted her work for publication. Phyllis was named Discovery of the Year for “bosque, the magazine” for her short story, “Life After.” Her first novel, What Survives, was short-listed for the Santa Fe Writers Project.
A one-time song lyricist, Phyllis practiced the short form as she studied and pursued a career as a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst. While living in New York City, she studied American Sign Language and Seido Karate and established a karate program for the deaf in collaboration with her karate grandmaster, Kaicho Nakamura. Although she retired as a second degree black belt, her program continues.
Phyllis has a master’s degree in counseling from Fordham University, a master’s degree in social work from Wurzweiler School of Social Work (Yeshiva University) and a certification in the child and adolescent from Metropolitan Institute for Training in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
In 2000, Phyllis and her husband relocated to Placitas, New Mexico, but Phyllis returned to NYC in 2001 to work as a volunteer for the Red Cross after Sept. 11.
“As They Are,” forthcoming in April 2022, is the prequel to her award-winning novel, “What Survives,” both of which are set in Turkey. She also is the author of “Myopia, a memoir.”
Phyllis is retired from a small private psychoanalytic practice in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I Want My Country Back – NO!! Forward
My dear friend Debbie, a talented woman, made T-shirts for us to wear to the recent gun law march in Santa Fe. And I must say that the youth who spoke and performed gave me much to look forward to in our country’s future. As we attempt to be optimistic in such combustible times, I reflect on this rally to boost my only sense of hope: our youth. The other day, I read essays printed in The New York Times written by college applicants. My sister commented, “I’m glad I’m not up against them!” They all wrote beautifully and from their hearts. Of...
read moreFacing History: What Do We Do About Injustice?
While in Boston last month for a book signing of Myopia, a memoir, I learned about an interesting organization called Facing History. It was started by a Boston elementary school teacher, and it has now become a global organization. Unfortunately, Albuquerque, New Mexico has no chapter. My new friend, Dr. Anna Ornstein, goes into Boston schools and speaks to junior high school and high school students about the Holocaust, racism, prejudice and what we can do about this now and in the future. As a survivor, she delivers a powerful message. She...
read moreAn honor, and a precious moment in time: My book signing in Boston with Dr. Anna Ornstein
Boston is a wonderful city. Everything is close at hand, and one can walk almost everywhere. The museums are fabulous, as is the food, and the people are friendly and helpful. How exciting it was for me to be back there after so many years for a book signing. Earlier this month, I came to Boston to speak about my book Myopia, a memoir (IP Books) at Brookline Booksmith with Dr. Anna Ornstein, author of My Mother’s Eyes: Holocaust Memoires of a Young Girl (Published by Emmis Books, sold by IP Books). I wish I had taken more advantage of Boston...
read moreReading My Work, and Having Fun
For International Women’s Month, I joined poet Hilda Raz and novelist Lynn C. Miller for a celebration of women at the Corrales Community Library What fun we had for the International Women’s Month reading at Corrales Community Library on March 13, 2018. The room was packed with poets and writers and friends as poet Hilda Raz, novelist Lynn C Miller and I shared readings from our work. The themes we chose to explore for this monthlong celebration of women were voice and body image. Many thanks to all who were able to join us. But beyond all...
read moreA Writing Life Can Include Art
On a recent trip to visit my sister for her birthday, she invited me to play with her in her studio. She has taken up watercolors after years of incredible art quilting. Since I had played with Japanese and Chinese ink brush painting, watercolors sounded like fun to me. For two days, I was enraptured with this new right-brain exercise, and I left Denver with a list of purchases, some of which my generous sister is gifting me. Whatever the artistic process is, it is good to have alternative ways to get the right brain going again when...
read moreCelebrating sisters: Women’s History Month
As many of you know from my book Myopia, a memoir, my mother was disabled by an aneurysm at my birth. For the next few years, she was in and out of the hospital for surgeries and forced to take heavy-duty medication that left her sleepy and depressed. My sister was eight years old at the time. Some sisters would have blamed me. After all, she was only eight and very angry at the loss of the mother she had known before I was born. My mother had graduated first in her class in mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1930s. She was...
read moreReflections on the Future
I never had a child of my own, so naturally, I will never have grandchildren. But I have worked with many, many children over the years. For a time, I worked in the Zero to Three Nursery at the Lexington Center in New York. We helped hearing families with deaf children, deaf parents with hearing children and deaf families with deaf children. Some of these cases were quite challenging. In certain instances, we were overjoyed with the progress our families were able to make. Most of these folks could not afford private services. Medicaid was...
read moreTime to Stretch: My New Beginning Rank
Some folks may be wondering how my retirement schedule is going. After hearing so many stories, positive and negative, regarding retirement, and knowing people who promptly returned to work, I also wondered what it might be like for me. The key for me was to plan. This is not always so easy, but it has worked well for me. I cut back. Early on, I went from five days a week to four. After a few years, I went from four days to three, and I stayed there for several years. The next step was not to take any new patients. This was the most...
read moreA Few of the Wonderful Places Writing Takes Me: My Upcoming Book Talk with Anna Ornstein in Boston
This past Monday, Martin Luther King Day, my publicist, Carolyn Flynn, initiated a dialogue for me with Dr. Anna Ornstein. The connection came about through a conversation that Carolyn had with my publisher, IP Books, which suggested that I think about presenting and reading with Anna. She was not completely unknown to me through psychoanalysis and her publications on trauma, but I had no idea of the amount she has written. And I did not know about her book, My Mother’s Eyes: Holocaust Memories of a Young Girl, a collection of stories she...
read moreDACA Dad: What If…?
My father did not become a citizen until he was an adult. He fled the Russian pogroms to create a better life. Gratitude can shape some pretty good citizens. My sister is now an activist and works for the rights of immigrants. I am so proud of her. I did most of my activism during the 1960s and 1970s, although I do sign many petitions and support special candidates and causes. We were on the phone chatting last week, when she said something that really made me sad. When I researched our father’s papers for Myopia, a memoir, it was the first...
read moreRecent Awards
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