Carol Sklenicka

Sklenicka grew up in Santa Maria, California, graduating in 1971 from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California. In 1986, she received a Ph.D. in English and American literature from Washington University in St. Louis, where she studied with Naomi Lebowitz, Stanley Elkin, and Howard Nemerov. She taught literature and creative writing at Marquette University and at the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. She lives with poet and novelist R.M. Ryan, author of Vaudeville in the Dark, There's a Man with a Gun Over There, and The Lost Roads Adventure Club, near the Russian River in northern California, where she now devotes herself to writing, environmental activism, and rural living.[5]

Over the years, Sklenicka has contributed to multiple literary journals, including Confrontation, South Atlantic Quarterly, Iowa Woman, and Sou'wester. She is an active member of Biographers International Organization. In 2021, she was featured in conversation with biographers Tim Christian and Carl Rollyson on Rollyson’s podcast A Life in Biography, discussing the elements and mechanics involved in writing biographies.[6]

Upon publication, Sklenicka's biography of Carver was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2009 by The New York Times Book Review and a Notable Book by the San Francisco Chronicle, The Washington Post, and the Seattle Times. It followed more than a decade of interviews with Carver's friends, family, and writing colleagues,[7] though Carver's widow, poet Tess Gallagher, chose not to be interviewed by Sklenicka.[7] Some critics, most notably novelist Stephen King, writing in The New York Times Book Review, found that Sklenicka displayed "something like awe for Carver the writer" and was "almost nonjudgmental when it comes to Carver the nasty drunk and ungrateful (not to mention sometimes dangerous) husband",[2] although Jason M. Appel, in Ploughshares, said "Carver, as presented by Sklenicka, is a man of profound moral shortcomings." Time found the book "judicious, thorough and sometimes harrowing".[8]

In her most recent work, Sklenicka "gives us the first full-length popular biography of brilliant novelist and short story writer Alice Adams," noted a Christian Science Monitor reviewer, naming Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer one of that newspaper's top 10 books for the month.[9] According toThe New York Times' reviewer, Sklenicka was "prudent and appreciative in her assessment of Adams's work".[10] The Minneapolis Star Tribune reviewer, calling Sklenicka’s biography “empathetic, revealing, and brisk,” wrote, “Sklenicka frames Adams’s life and work within themes of escape, redemption, and persistence… Adams’s footprint has faded. Sklenicka’s portrait may well encourage new readers and justifiably revive her reputation.” The New Republic's reviewer commented on the book's length: "It's hard to imagine any but the true devotee wading in: I think Adams was a superb writer, but I'm not sure I need 500 pages on her," but then wrote, "If you're the sort who delights in the account of the midcentury artistic life ... Portrait of a Writer does deliver."[11]

• D. H. Lawrence and the Child. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1991.
• Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life. New York: Scribner, 2009.
• Alice Adams: A Writer's Life. New York: Scribner, 2019.

• Publishers Weekly review, Alice Adams: Portrait of a Writer
• Economic Times Interview with Sklenicka
• Carol Polsgrove on Writers' Lives: A Conversation on Raymond Carver
• Ploughshares Review: Raymond Carver: A Writer's Life by Jason M. Appel
• Washington Magazine: "Catching a Story-Catcher" by Candace O'Connor