An award celebrating the power of literature to promote peace has been renamed in honor of the late Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and author Barbara Kingsolver will be this year’s recipient.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s lifetime achievement award was first given in 2006. It was inspired by the Dayton peace accords on Bosnia brokered by Holbrooke in 1995 negotiations at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near the southwest Ohio city.
Founder Sharon Rab says that the prize organization wanted to honor Holbrooke’s international role in seeking peace and his special importance to Dayton. The longtime U.S. diplomat died last December at age 69 following surgery on his torn aorta.
Kingsolver will receive the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award in Dayton on Nov. 13. It carries a $10,000 prize; the peace prize group is supported by a combination of corporations, schools, groups that promote the arts, and private donors.
