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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt">SALT HOUSES
</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">BY HALA ALYAN<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">AND
<i>WE WERE EIGHT YEARS IN POWER </i>BY TA-NEHISI COATES<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">NAMED WINNERS OF 2018 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Pachinko
</span></i></b><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">by Min Jin Lee and <i>Reading with Patrick
</i>by Michelle Kuo named runners-up<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Dayton, OH (September 17, 2018)
</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">–</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">
<i>Salt Houses </i>, Hala Alyan's debut novel about a displaced<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Palestinian family, and
<i>We Were Eight Years in Power </i>, Ta-Nehisi Coates's exploration of race and<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">identity through the lens of the Obama presidency, today were named the winners of the 2018<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction and nonfiction, respectively.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Pachinko
</span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt">, Min Jin Lee's debut novel following four generations of a Korean-Japanese family, was<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">named runner-up for fiction, while
<i>Reading with Patrick </i>, Michelle Kuo's memoir of mentoring a<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">teenager from one of the poorest counties in the U.S, was named the nonfiction runner-up.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding. This<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">year's winners will be honored at a gala ceremony hosted by journalist and author Wil Haygood (
<i>The<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><i><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Butler
</span></i><span style="font-size:10.0pt">and <i>Showdown. </i>a 2016 finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in nonfiction) in Dayton on<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">October 28th. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $5,000.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">"This year's winners and runners-up remind us just how much individual lives are shaped by broader<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">political circumstances
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">–</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"> and how abruptly those circumstances can change," said Sharon Rab,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">founder and co-chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. "From Alyan's portrait of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">characters repeatedly displaced by an age-old conflict to Coates's incisive analysis of the modern<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">US presidency, these books help us view politics through both an emotional and an intellectual lens,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">strengthening our empathy while sharpening our powers of political perception."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">The 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in Fiction:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Hala Alyan's heartbreaking debut novel,
</span><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;color:blue">Salt Houses </span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt">(Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt), follows three<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">generations of a Palestinian family as they are uprooted by one military clash after another, giving up<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">their home, their land, and their story as they know it and scattering throughout the world. A lyrical<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">examination of displacement, belonging, and family, the book humanizes an age-old conflict,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">illuminating the experiences of all refugees and challenging readers to confront that most<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">devastating of all truths: you can</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">’</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">t go home again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">On receiving the prize, Alyan said:
</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">“</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">One of my earliest memories is watching my father</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">’</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">s
face light<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">up as I chatted excitedly about the first book I read on my own. It</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">’</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">s
taken me years to truly<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">understand that moment</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">—</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">that, in that instant, my father witnessed
my foray into the sacred world of<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">fiction, of perspective-taking and erasing borders, of understanding the complexity of others. He<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">watched me untangle from the confines of immigration, the Gulf War we</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">’</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt">d
just fled from, and the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">ensuing otherness, and when I began to write my own stories, that sense of freedom magnified.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">Writing has taught me to pay homage to my ancestors and envision the world after I am long gone; it<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">has empowered me to tell stories of oppression and restoration, to envision peace as something<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">tangible. I am my most human when I am writing, my most alert and engaged and compassionate.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-autospace:none"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">To have my novel seen as a conduit for peace-building is remarkably humbling. Thank you for the<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt">honor of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"">”</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Posted on behalf of Helen Prichard and the Library Committee of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:windowtext"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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