CFIDS Writers Get Their Due

On May 5, Laura Hillenbrand’s essay about her CFIDS experience will be honored by the American Society of Magazine Editors at its annual National Magazine Awards ceremony. “A Sudden Illness” chronicles the first moments that Hillenbrand sensed that her body was not quite right and describes in painstaking detail what she endured as she searched for a diagnosis and how she applied her very limited energy to research and write the highly acclaimed book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend. The article was published in the July 7, 2003 issue of New Yorker magazine and is one of five nominees in the “Essay” awards category that honors the “author’s eloquence, perspective, fresh thinking and unique voice.”

Writer Floyd Skloot’s literary achievements are also being recognized. His book, In the Shadow of Memory, about living with a disordered brain (due to CFIDS) is a finalist for the PEN Award in the Art of the Essay. PEN is an international organization of literary writers, distinguished for its vigilant defense of the freedom of expression since 1931. Skloot has also been honored with a one-month residence at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Study and Conference Center in Bellagio, Italy , on the shores of Lake Cuomo . According to the Rockefeller Foundation, the Center provides “an ideal environment of solitude, contemplation and productivity in which scholars, scientists, artists, writers, policymakers and practitioners from all over the world may pursue their creative and scholarly work.” Skloot and his wife Beverly Hallberg will join 14 other scholars representing diverse fields and interests. Residents are selected, “not just for individual excellence or for the potential of their proposed projects, but also for geographical diversity of their homelands and for their capacity to contribute to the intellectual mix of life at the Center.” Felicitazione!