American Romantic by Ward Just was named a Must-Read Book in the fiction category of the 2015 Massachusetts Book Awards. Mr. Just’s novel, his 18th, takes readers back to the early days of the Viet Nam War, which the author covered as a journalist for Newsweek and The Washington Post. The main character is a foreign service officer in Saigon “when the war was not quite a war, more a prelude to a war.”

Other Vineyarders receiving awards are Fanny Howe for her book of poetry Second Childhood, and Richard Michelson’s picture book for kids, S is for Sea Glass: A Beach Alphabet.