Contact:
Patrick Kowalczyk, [email protected]
Jenny Chang, [email protected]
PKPR, 212.627.8098

Dayton, OH (August 12, 2015) � Gloria Steinem, the iconic author and activist whose writing and activism has helped shape modern feminism, will receive the 2015 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, organizers of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize announced today.

Named in honor of the celebrated U.S. diplomat who played an instrumental role in negotiating the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, the award will be presented to Steinem at the 10th Annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize Gala on November 1st. Legendary television personality Phil Donahue, who launched his television talk show in Dayton, Ohio in 1969, will present the award to Steinem. The gala is one of a series of major events in Dayton this November commemorating the 20th anniversary of the historic peace agreement. Founded in 2005, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. It honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. The Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award recognizes authors for their complete body of work.

Born in 1934, Steinem has been an outspoken champion of women's equality since the 1960s, when she began her career as a freelance journalist. She rose to public prominence in 1963 with her legendary expose on New York City's Playboy Club, for which she worked undercover as a Playboy "bunny." She helped create New York magazine in the late '60s, and in 1972 spearheaded the launch of the pioneering feminist magazine Ms. She also was a founder of the National Women's Political Caucus. Her first collection of articles and essays, Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions, has become a classic in the feminist canon, selling nearly half a million copies since its publication in 1983. Other influential books include Marilyn: Norma Jean (1986), a meditation on the life of Marilyn Monroe; Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem (1992); and the essay collection Moving Beyond Words: Age, Rage, Sex, Power, Money, Muscles - Breaking the Boundaries of Genders (1993). Steinem�s countless awards and accolades include the 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Her new book, My Life on the Road, her first in 20 years, will be published in October 2015.

"Gloria Steinem�s words have changed the world, not only opening horizons for the female half of the world�s population, but also opening the hearts and minds of men to the issues women have faced from the beginning of time,� said Sharon Rab, founder and co-chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. �Her work reflects the issues that have been the focus of winning Dayton Literary Peace Prize books over the last decade: issues of race, class, gender, and their connections to violence."

"As a little girl reading about Eleanor Roosevelt in a Toledo neighborhood library -- or a grown-up recommending books like Sex and World Peace to all who will listen -- I've learned that words give us our ideas of what is possible," said Steinem. "I'm honored to be any part of a recognition that words and ideas must lead the way."

Steinem will join the ranks of past winners of the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, formerly called the Lifetime Achievement Award, including Studs Terkel (2006), Elie Wiesel (2007), Taylor Branch (2008), Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn (2009), Geraldine Brooks (2010), Barbara Kingsolver (2011), Tim O'Brien (2012), Wendell Berry (2013), and Louise Erdrich (2014).

Finalists for the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize will be announced September 9th.

About the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has already established itself as one of the world�s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. 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. Additionally, the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award is bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize's mission; previous honorees include Wendell Berry, Taylor Branch, Geraldine Brooks, Louise Erdrich, Barbara Kingsolver, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Tim O'Brien, Studs Terkel, and Elie Wiesel. For more information visit the Dayton Literary Peace Prize media center at daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/press.htm.

# # #

Press release in PDF format.