Dayton Literary Peace Prizes Go to Wartime Ukraine Novel and Charleston Church History
The Dayton Literary Peace Prizes have honoured a Ukraine-set debut novel and a history of Charleston's Mother Emanuel church, with Ann Patchett receiving a lifetime achievement award.
A debut novel set during the war in Ukraine and a two-century history of a Black church in South Carolina have been named the winners of this year's Dayton Literary Peace Prizes.
The fiction award went to Sam Wachman's "The Sunflower Boys," in which two brothers must fend for themselves after a Russian bombardment destroys their home. Kevin Sack took the nonfiction prize for "Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church," which traces the congregation through slavery, the Civil Rights Movement and the 2015 shooting that killed nine worshippers.
Each winner will receive $10,000. The runners-up — Charlotte McConaghy's "Wild Dark Shore" and Eve L. Ewing's "Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism" — will each receive $5,000.
The Dayton Foundation had earlier announced that Ann Patchett, author of "Bel Canto," would be given a lifetime achievement award.
In a statement released Thursday, foundation executive director Nicholas A. Raines said the judges and the community continue to find books that centre stories promoting peace and understanding, at a time when those ideals can feel increasingly distant. He added that each of the four selected works offers readers something distinctive.
Established in 2006, the prizes recognise writers whose work uses the written word to advance peace, social justice and global understanding. Past recipients include Ta-Nehisi Coates, Alice Hoffman and Junot Diaz.