Recognizing the power of literature to promote peace and reconciliation, The Dayton Literary Foundation has announced the finalists for the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and nonfiction. Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize (DLPP) is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The award celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, justice, and global understanding. The winners will be honored at a gala ceremony (sold out) in Dayton, Ohio on October 28.
Writer John Irving, whose novels champion outsiders and often explore the bigotry, intolerance, and hatred directed at sexual minorities, will receive the 2018 The Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named in honor of the noted U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords.
This year’s finalists come from throughout the world—their countries of origin include the Czech Republic, Germany, Great Britain, South Korea, Palestine, Pakistan, Taiwan, and the U.S. Their books explore issues of immigration, occupation, ethnic wars, the power of education, justice and injustice, and African American history. Congratulations to all!
Click each link below to view availability of these books in Cleveland Public Library‘s online public access catalog.
The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize fiction finalists are:
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Spaceman of Bohemia by Jaroslav Kalfař
The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize nonfiction finalists are:
Enduring Vietnam by James Wright
Ghost of the Innocent Man by Benjamin Rachlin
Lolas’ House by M. Evelina Galang
Reading with Patrick by Michelle Kuo
The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Click here to learn more.
About the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has established itself as one of the world’s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. As an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards a $10,000 cash prize each year to one fiction and one nonfiction author whose work advances peace as a solution to conflict, and leads readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. Additionally, The Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award is bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize’s mission; previous honorees include Wendell Berry, Taylor Branch, Geraldine Brooks, Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Tim O’Brien, Marilynne Robinson, Gloria Steinem, Studs Terkel, Colm Tóibín and Elie Wiesel. For more information visit the Dayton Literary Peace Prize media center at http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/press.htm.
Adapted from the DLPP press release.