Born March 30: Vestal McIntyre

Born and raised with six older siblings twenty miles west of Boise, Idaho, Vestal McIntyre attended Tufts, moved to New York, worked as a waiter, and published two books, both of which won Lammys and were named as Editors' Choice selections by the NYT Book Review. Of 2005's eight-story collection You Are Not the One, Booklist said, "Filled with witty dialogue, strong and varied characters, and the power to move and disturb, this is a brilliant debut." The following year the NEA awarded him a grant to work on his first novel, Lake Overturn [Kindle], an ambitious, gay-inclusive work that appeared in 2009 to strong praise -- NYTBR "striking," Philadelphia Gay News "astonishing," Out "richly imagined and fully realized...the next Great Idahoan Novel." The Washington Post named it a Best Book of the Year. Six months ago he published a Kindle Single called Almost Tall about Dinah, a fourteen year-old Midwestern ballet student spending the summer in Manhattan with her uncle Rick and his partner Eddie. Now Vestal lives in London, where he is working on a collection of stories about New York and his second novel.