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.
On learning a new language, and gaining a family
As I broke the Ramadan fast with my Turkish teacher, I took a moment to reflect For the second year in a row, my dear friend and Turkish teacher has invited my husband and me, along with our Turkish class, to break the Ramadan fast with her and her lovely family. This year has been quite a year for Muhsine Aykac, our beautiful teacher. She received her master’s degree in education a couple of weeks after becoming a United States citizen. Her husband, Salih, is working on his dissertation to receive his Ph.D. These are hard working people who...
read moreWhat Does It Mean to Be “Wild and Free” in Today’s World?
As I drove up to my friends’ house the other day, this fellow was in their driveway. He was heading to the birdbath to have a drink of water. He ran off, as I pulled in, his muscles taut and strained in flight, a flash of phenomenal beauty. He returned once I was inside, and so I caught this photo from the front window. A wild horse of Placitas, he cantered wild and free. What does that even mean anymore? I struggle with this question, as I wrestle with the future of our planet, the earth that has been our home for so many years. Our...
read moreKeeping My Nose to the Grindstone
The difference between the black and white rhino is not their actual color but the shape of their lips. The black rhino has a pointed lip to pluck fruits off branches and to sort leaves from twigs. The white rhino grazes, and so has a flat, wide lip suitable for grasses. Both the black and white rhino have poor eyesight. He is more frightened than he is aggressive. Although, when he is spooked, he appears to possess a bad temper and be easily provoked. This is why the rhino comes to mind just as my family memoir, Myopia, a memoir, reaches the...
read moreMy Sister’s Living Room: A Reading and Signing for What Survives in Denver, Colorado
For animal lovers, I repent. There are none in this blog but the human kind! Stay tuned for more four-legged creatures in future blogs. I do not like to disappoint! Even though there were five inches of snow on the ground on April 29, we were an even dozen gathered for a reading and signing at home of my sister, Gay. I thought I had the best book club anywhere, but my sister’s is, at the very least, clearly on a par with mine. Everyone had read the book (not the case in all book clubs), and they had excellent questions and comments. One...
read moreMyths and Bad Reputations in South Africa and Around the World
Does this hyena pup know its reputation? Does it have any idea how it is depicted in Disney films? This innocent little fellow my husband and I saw on a 12-day bush trip in Africa has not a notion of how he’s been presented to the world and how that might affect his future. He does not even own the spots, yet that will identify him his whole life as the spotted hyena or the laughing hyena. Would he wish to rid himself of them if he knew? Human babies have this dilemma as well. A dark-skinned human baby has no idea that his skin color will...
read moreElephants Both In And Out Of The Room
If I had it to do all over again, I would devote myself to the study of the elephant. Sadly, there is only so much one can cram into the too few years of a lifetime, and so I consider myself lucky to have been able to spend some time with them. Elephants are impressive creatures with a fascinating culture. Last year when my husband I spent 12 days in the bush on a trip to Africa, I noticed that no matter how many animals we were seeing, the elephants never lost their allure. Always led by a matriarch, the herd does not tolerate incest. If a...
read moreMad Dogs and Englishmen… or Wild Dogs and Americans
Reflections on Them vs. Us As some of my readers might have noticed, I am extremely fond of animals, animal images and animal metaphors. Some say that animals differ from humans in that they don’t possess souls. I challenge anyone to live with critters for a bit and to uphold that theory. All the animals who’ve chosen to live with me (and it has been their choice) most definitely have souls, deeper souls than many of the Homo sapiens I’ve known. Last fall, my husband and I took a trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe. One of the highlights was an...
read moreWatch the Dung Beetle
Why I keep rolling forward to a sweet new career I am haunted by dreams of going back to college, at my current age, no less, and with a full head of gray hair. I am living with an assortment of strange young people in dorms or apartments with filthy kitchens, sinks piled with dirty dishes, and no drawers or closet space. The only restaurant in any of the many hallucinatory towns I come upon in sleep has thin soup, mashed something or other and saltine crackers. There is only one book for four classes or four books for one class, but in none...
read moreWhat Does Survive? The Roar of the Lion
An evening with a journalist-in-exile at the Raindrop Turkish House On March 4, 2016, Abdülhamit Bilici lost his position of 25 years as Editor in Chief of Zaman, the largest newspaper in Turkey. Ten days later, with an overnight bag in hand and a passport that might just as easily have been already revoked, he boarded a plane out of Istanbul, knowing full well he might not ever be able to return. On March 3, 2017, I had the flu and a fever of 101. I also had tickets to a lecture at the Raindrop Turkish House in Albuquerque. The...
read moreWhat Does Survive?
Back in Placitas and Planning My Writing Life From the author of What Survives All my life (since the age of five) I dreamed of becoming two things: one, a psychoanalyst and two, a writer. These desires survived. It is hard for me to believe that I have been fortunate enough to achieve both, but at the end of July of this year, I will close my private practice and begin my writing life. I thought this shift in my time here on earth might be interesting to write about and read about, especially in these tough times for both retirement and the...
read moreRecent Awards
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