[OPLINLIST] FW: Winners of Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2016

[Gregor, Paul]

Please see the following release and information which has been posted on behalf of Helen Pritchard and the Library Committee of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.


THE SYMPATHIZER BY VIET THANH NGUYEN

AND NAGASAKI BY SUSAN SOUTHARD

NAMED WINNERS OF 2016 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE

Delicious Foods by James Hannaham and
Find Me Unafraid by Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner Odede named runners-up

A pair of books reflecting on the aftermath of two 20th-century conflicts - The Sympathizer by Vietnamese-American Viet Thanh Nguyen and Nagasaki by Susan Southard - today were named the winners of the 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction and nonfiction, respectively.

Delicious Foods, James Hannaham's novel of addiction and redemption, was named runner-up for fiction, while Find Me Unafraid, the autobiographical love story of two social activists, an African man and an American woman, was named the nonfiction runner-up.

"This year's winners remind us that the effects of war reverberate many years and often many generations after treaties are signed," said Sharon Rab, founder and co-chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. "Together, these stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen and Susan Southard offer cautionary tales but also guideposts to lead us toward a greater understanding of those who are originally seen as enemies."

Nguyen's profound, startling, and beautifully crafted debut novel The Sympathizer<http://www.groveatlantic.com/?title=The+Sympathizer> (Grove Atlantic) introduces one of the most compelling narrators of recent fiction: a double agent in the aftermath of the Vietnam War whose ideals necessitate the betrayal of the people closest to him. Both gripping spy yarn and astute exploration of extreme politics, The Sympathizer examines the Vietnam War's legacy in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

Southard, a narrative journalist, spent over a decade interviewing survivors, historians, physicians, psychologists, and archivists for Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War<http://www.penguin.com/book/nagasaki-by-susan-southard/9780698195554> (Penguin Random House), a powerful and unflinching account of the enduring impact of nuclear war told through the stories of those who survived. The book takes readers from the morning the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki to the modern day, offering an intimate, immediate account that promises to shape future discussions of one of the most controversial wartime acts in history.

In Delicious Foods<http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/james-hannaham/delicious-foods/9780316284943/> (Little, Brown and Company), a widow under the sway of an overpowering addiction struggles to reunite with her young son while held captive on a mysterious farm. Hannaham's daring and shape-shifting prose infuses his characters with grace and humor while wrestling with timeless questions of forgiveness, redemption, and the will to survive.

In Find Me Unafraid: Love, Loss, and Hope in an African Slum<https://www.harpercollins.com/9780062292858/find-me-unafraid> (Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins), two social activists, Kenyan native Odede and Colorado native Posner O interweave their own love story around the tale of their efforts to empower young people - including founding the first tuition-free school for girls - in Odede's hometown of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa.

Organizers previously announced that novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson<http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/2016-holbrooke.htm> (Housekeeping, Gilead) will be the recipient of the 2016 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named in honor of the celebrated U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords.

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 already 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 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award is bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize's mission; previous honorees include Louise Erdrich, Wendell Berry, Taylor Branch, Geraldine Brooks, Barbara Kingsolver, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Tim O'Brien, Gloria Steinem, Studs Terkel, and Elie Wiesel. For more information visit the Dayton Literary Peace Prize media center at http://daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/press.htm.


Paul Gregor
Head Librarian
Jamestown Community Library
(937) 736-7910


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