Myra Sklarew


Myra Weisberg Sklarew was an American biologist, poet and teacher.

Life and career

Sklarew was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1934. She began writing poetry at the age of 7 or 8, in part because of her frequent long stays at home due to reoccurring strep throat infections.
She received a biology degree from Tufts University, in 1956. She studied bacterial genetics and bacterial viruses with Salvador Luria and Max Delbrück at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. In 1961, she moved to Bethesda, Maryland with her family. She later studied with Elliott Coleman at the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, where she received an M.A. in 1970. After that, she began teaching at American University, and taught there from 1970 to 2007, except for a four-year stint, from 1987 to 1991, where she served as president of the Yaddo artist community.
Sklarew was the author of three chapbooks, and six collections of poetry. Her poems are in the Contemporary Poets Archive at the Library of Congress, while her papers are in the University of Maryland Archives.
After her retirement in 2007, Sklarew was emerita professor of literature in the writing program at American University.
Sklarew died due to complications from Crohn’s disease on December 30, 2024, at the age of 89.

Awards