Robert Boyers is editor of Salmagundi and director of the New York State Summer Writers Institute. He is the author of nine books, most recently The Dictator’s Dictation (On The Politics of Novels & Novelists) and An Excitable Woman (short stories). His essay “A Beauty” appeared last year in AGNI and is reprinted in the 2012 edition of Best American Essays. He has taught at Skidmore College since 1969. (updated 6/2013)