Westover and Powers make Dayton Literary Peace Prize shortlist

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize shortlist has been unveiled featuring Tara Westover’s debut Educated (Windmill) and the Man Booker-shortlisted The Overstory (William Heinemann) by Richard Powers.

The Prize Foundation has announced the finalists for both the 2019 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and non-fiction. Formed in 2006, it is the first and only annual US literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace, based in Ohio.

The fiction shortlist includes The Overstory by Powers - last year shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize - There There (Penguin) by Tommy Orange, Insurrecto (Soho Press) by Gina Apostol, Sadness Is A White Bird (Atria Books) by Moriel Rothman Zecher, What We Owe by Golnaz Hashemzadeh and White Chrysanthemum (Penguin Random House) by Mary Lynn Bracht.

The non-fiction finalists include www.thebookseller.com/profile/tara-westover-my-biggest-fear-wasn..., Frederick Douglass’ Prophet of Freedom (Simon & Schuster UK), I Should Have Honour (Vintage) by Khalida Brohi, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (Rider) by Anthony Hinton with Lara Love Hardin and Tigerland (St Martin’s Press) by Wil Haygood.

A winner and runner-up in fiction and non-fiction will be announced on 17th September. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $5,000. Finalists will be reviewed by a judging panel of writers including Lesley Nneka Arimah Bob Shacochis, Brando Skyhorse and Helen Thorpe.

To be eligible for the 2019 awards, English-language books had to be published or translated into English in 2018 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.

Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, the award is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding. This year's winners will be announced at a gala ceremony in Dayton on November 3rd.

“At a time when the Dayton community and the nation are still reeling from the August 7th mass shooting, this year’s finalists offer moving examples of people who have forged a path to peace and reconciliation through even the most violent and unjust situations,” said Sharon Rab, chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. “These books remind us that, as the planet grows ever more interconnected, violence can have far-reaching repercussions -- but so can peace, and every individual effort toward healing, whatever the circumstances, can go a long way toward making the world a better place.”