Former journalist Rick Skwiot has authored four novels—Hemingway First Novel Award winner Death in Mexico, Willa Cather Fiction Prize finalist Sleeping With Pancho Villa, Key West Story, and Fail—as well as two memoirs: the critically acclaimed Christmas at Long Lake: A Childhood Memory and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico: Memoir of a Sensual Quest for Spiritual Healing. He has taught fiction writing at Washington University in St. Louis and served as the 2004 Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He works as a feature writer and editor, and lives in Key West