Que Sera Jura?Not for This Nonfiction Writer

Looks like I wasn’t the only one surprised by the results of the Isle of Jura writer’s retreat competition. Floyd Skloot (right), who’s written more than a dozen books in all sorts of genres, wrote us to say, “I applied for this retreat, with great hope and seriousness, and am deeply disappointed in the way things were handled.” Though his memoirs had been deemed worthy of PEN awards and NYTBR notability, “the guidelines were clear that nonfiction writers were not the target; I applied in February, the final month allowed, precisely to see if there might be some change in the rules. So I applied in poetry, where I’ve published five well-received volumes and have a sixth forthcoming, and I mentioned that I’d also published four novels, since they weren’t ruling out fiction writers… Mine was a serious, heartfelt application, and my qualifications were, I believe, strong, and would have been much stronger if I’d been allowed to apply in nonfiction.”

But Skloot’s concerns about the program developed even before he read about the selection of literary journalist Philip Gourevitch for the one-month retreat. “Applicants weren’t asked for writing samples,” he recalls. No letters of recommendation were required… [and] no supporting materials such as reviews were asked for. It felt—I said this to my wife at the time I applied—like an inside job, a done deal, like a gesture toward public application when they intended to hand over the residency to someone they already had in mind.” The fact that Gourevitch himself was initially reluctant to put his name forward because he wasn’t sure he was eligible mitigates against that conclusion, but the confusion among American literary nonfiction writers has become much more palpable. (As noted yesterday, the matter is resolved for Scottish applicants, and, one hopes, for next year’s American hopefuls.)

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