A former newspaper reporter, Rick Skwiot is the author of six previously published works-- four novels and two memoirs-- that have won praise from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and major newspapers. His debut novel Death in Mexico won Florida's Hemingway First Novel Award and his second book, Sleeping With Pancho Villa, was a finalist for the Willa Cather Fiction Prize. His urban mystery Fail was a St. Louis Post-Dispatch notable book for 2014. He's taught postgraduate fiction writing at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he served as Distinguished Visiting Writer.