LITERARY WINNERS
Dayton prize honors ‘Salt Houses,’ ‘8 Years’
“Salt Houses,” Hala Alyan’s debut novel about a displaced Palestinian family, and “We Were Eight Years in Power,” Ta-Nehisi Coates’s exploration of race and identity through the lens of the Obama presidency, were named the winners of the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction and nonfiction.
“This year’s winners and runners-up remind us just how much individual lives are shaped by broader political circumstances – and how abruptly those circumstances can change,” said Sharon Rab, founder and chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation in a news release. “From Alyan’s portrait of characters repeatedly displaced by an age-old conflict to Coates’s incisive analysis of the modern U.S. presidency, these books help us view politics through both an emotional and an intellectual lens, strengthening our empathy while sharpening our powers of political perception.”
Here is a list of the winners, and descriptions of each of the books as described by the committee.
THE WINNERS
FICTION
“Salt Houses” by Hala Alyan (Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt): A heartbreaking story that follows three generations of a Palestinian family and asks us to confront the most devastating of all truths: you can’t go home again. NONFICTION
“We Were Eight Years in Power” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (One World PRH): “Biting cultural and political analysis… reflects on race, Barack Obama’s presidency and its jarring aftermath, and [Coates’] own evolution as a writer in eight stunningly incisive essays.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
THE RUNNERS-UP
“Pachinko,” Min Jin Lee’s debut novel following four generations of a Korean-Japanese family, was named runner-up for fiction, while “Reading with Patrick,” Michelle Kuo’s memoir of mentoring a teenager from one of the poorest counties in the U.S, was named the nonfiction runner-up. FICTION Pachinko by Min Jin Lee (Grand Central): Exiled from a homeland they never knew, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destinies. NON-FICTION “Reading with Patrick” by Michelle Kuo (Random House): In this stirring memoir, Kuo, the child of Taiwanese immigrants, shares the story of her complicated but rewarding mentorship of Patrick Browning, a teenage student from one of the poorest counties in the U.S., and his remarkable literary and personal awakening.
ABOUT THE PRIZE
Established in 2006 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.”
The Peace Prize committee previously announced that John Irving — the writer of a long list of classics that include “The World According to Garp,” “The Cider House Rules” and “A Prayer for Owen Meany”— was named the 2018 winner of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
To qualify for the awards, books had to be published or translated into English in 2017 and address the “theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or between nations, religions or ethnic groups.”
HOW TO GET INVOLVED
A conversation with the 2018 Dayton Literary Peace Prize winners is scheduled for Sunday, Oct. 28 beginning with registration at 9 a.m. at Sinclair College’s Ponitz Center. Reservations are required at peaceliterature@att.net.
This year’s winners will be honored at a gala ceremony hosted by journalist and author Wil Haygood (“The Butler and Showdown,” a 2016 finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in nonfiction) in Dayton on Oct. 28. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $5,000. This event at the Schuster Center is already sold out.