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Shawn Vestal聽鈥�08, 鈥�05, MFA creative writing, BA interdisciplinary studies, won the Washington State Book Award for fiction for his debut novel,聽顿补谤别诲别惫颈濒蝉听(Penguin Press, 2016).

The award, given by the Washington Center for the Book, honors 鈥渓iterary merit, lasting importance, and overall quality.鈥� Winners were announced in Seattle in October.

Vestal鈥檚 novel, set in the 1970s, tells the story of a teenage girl, raised in a fundamentalist Mormon community in Arizona, who takes up with a Gentile boy. Her parents聽catch her, and as punishment, marry her off to a local merchant who already has a wife and children.

Daredevils聽is Vestal鈥檚 second book. His first,聽Godforsaken Idaho, won the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for a debut book that 鈥渞epresents distinguished literary achievement and suggests great promise.鈥�

Vestal teaches in the MFA creative writing program at Eastern. He has been a writer, editor and columnist for聽The Spokesman-Review聽since 1999. Over the years, his works have appeared in聽Tin House, McSweeney鈥檚, Ecotone, The Southern Review, Cutbank, Sou鈥檞ester聽补苍诲听Florida Review.