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THE WORLD THAT WE KNEW BY ALICE HOFFMAN AND KNOW MY NAME BY CHANEL
MILLER ARE NAMED WINNERS OF THE 2020 DAYTON LITERARY PEACE PRIZE
Biased by Jennifer Eberhardt and The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri named runners-up
Winners will be honored at a gala ceremony on June 27, 2021
Dayton, OH (November
11, 2020) – Alice HoffmanÕs The World That We Knew, a novel
exploring love and resistance amidst the horrors of the Holocaust, and Know My Name, Chanel MillerÕs devastating but ultimately hopeful
memoir of sexual assault and its aftermath, today were named winners of the2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for fiction and nonfiction, respectively.
Christy LefteriÕs The Beekeeper of Aleppo, a powerful novel that puts a human face on
the Syrian war by following the story of an immigrant beekeeper and his wife
was named runner-up for fiction, while Jennifer EberhardtÕs Biased, which explores how unconscious
bias shapes human behavior from the classroom to the courtroom was named
runner-up for nonfiction.
Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $5,000.
Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia,
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize 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 honored at a gala ceremony in Dayton on June 27, 2021.
ÒFrom racial bias to misogyny, this yearÕs winning books explored
critical issues and events
in an election year that could redefine the countryÓ said Sharon Rab, Chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation.
ÒThey show us how important our political choices are and how they can affect individuals all over the
world.Ó
The 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in
Fiction:
The World That We Knew
(Simon & Schuster) by Alice Hoffman is a sweeping novel that follows three
unforgettable young women in 1941 Berlin -- one of them a golem sworn to protect
the youngest. In a world where evil and death lurk at every turn, we meet
remarkable characters who take us on a stunning journey of loss and resistance,
relying on their own courage and love to survive.
HoffmanÕs statement on receiving the prize: ÒIt is a great honor to be selected as the winner of
the Dayton Peace Prize for my novel The
World That We Knew, a book that explores what it means to be human in an
inhuman time. LiteratureÕs greatest gift is that it allows readers, and
writers, to imagine ourselves living other lives, as other souls, in situations
that challenge who we are and allow us to think about living a moral life. In
writing about the Holocaust, especially now, at a time two thirds of
millennials queried could not identify Auschwitz and 22 per cent had not heard
of the Holocaust, this novel may be the most important work of my career. I
want my readers to experience what it feels like to be abandoned, ostracized,
tortured, and murdered, as the result of being considered an outsider, just as
I want them to feel what it is like to be loyal, to trust, to fight for
justice, to love someone. It was my great privilege to meet with child
survivors, now in their eighties and nineties, in this country and in France,
and I was awed by their courage and humanity. Writing a novel that originated
in their world was one of the great experiences of my life, one I will always
be grateful for.Ó
The 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in
Nonfiction:
In Know My Name: A Memoir (Viking), Chanel
Miller shares the full story of her trauma and recovery from a sexual assault
on the Stanford campus in 2015. She turns the focus from the perpetrator, where
such stories are often centered, to the critical but much less common work of
revealing the truth of survivors, whose suffering is so often silenced and
unseen. MillerÕs unflinching, emotionally honest memoir is a testament to the
power of words to heal and effect change.
On receiving the
Prize, Miller said: ÒIn court, you testify in a wooden box and fear your words
will be snuffed out at any moment. ItÕs that constant extinguishing that really
wears you out. All that competing just to speak. Sitting down to write was the
first time I could hear myself. Two oÕclock in the morning, sitting in front of
a blinking cursor on a blank screen in the quiet was the best thing thatÕs ever
happened to me. No interruptions, nothing occurring, save for a small fan
whirring. And then my book came out, solid as a brick, and I was still a
nervous person. But one day I walked past a bookstore and saw my book, postured
and proud and forward facing. And I understood that even if I slipped off the face
of the earth tomorrow, my story would remain. I am in satchels and backpacks. I
have fallen off of bedside tables, half tucked under the bed. My voice is
indestructible. And there is a girl out there, who may be feeling as suffocated
or hidden as I once was. Late at night, sheÕll take out my book, and weÕll talk
about the hardest parts, lay bare our buried feelings, and nobody can touch
that space, and that to me is peace.Ó
The 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Runner-Up in Nonfiction:
In Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We
See, Think, and Do (Penguin) Jennifer Eberhardt,
a social psychologist and MacArthur ÒGeniusÓ award recipient, presents her
groundbreaking and often shocking research and data demonstrating how our
unconscious biases powerfully shape our behavior, leading to racial disparities
from the classroom to the courtroom to the boardroom. Showing that all people
are vulnerable to racial
bias, even if they are not racist, Eberhardt reminds us that racial bias is a
human problem—one that all people can play a role in solving.
Eberhardt said: ÒBias
does its work in the shadows and in the open, reworking our brains, framing and
distorting our relationships with each other, erecting barriers that limit how
we experience the world. Until we understand both its mechanics and its menace,
weÕre hostage to its power and cut off from the full measure of our own
humanity. By sharing science, stories and history, the written word can
dismantle our illusions and prompt the kind of soul searching that inspires
hope and courage and fuels a thirst for justice, lighting the path to authentic
peace.Ó
The 2020 Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Runner-Up in Fiction:
The Beekeeper of Aleppo
(Ballantine) by Christy Lefteri is an unforgettable
novel that puts human faces on the Syrian war with the immigrant story of a
beekeeper and his wife. When war destroys their home and kills their son, the
pair set out on an epic journey to Britain, encountering chaotically crowded
refugee camps, life-threatening sea crossings, and smugglers eager to exploit
them. Ringing with authenticity, this beautifully crafted novel reveals the
triumph of spirit when the world becomes unrecognizable.
Lefteri said:
ÒEmpathy is the beginning of peace. It is the seed from which peace grows. When
we can say - I feel your pain, I might
not know you but I will never add to your pain, - the possibility of peace
comes into existence. Without empathy, peace is impossible; it is drowned in
conflict, ideologies, prejudice, hatred, apathy. Without empathy, peace is
dead. Powerful stories can cut through prejudices and bring us into the heart
and mind of the other. Reading and hearing stories can help us to imagine lives
that might otherwise be unimaginable. Stories can unite the self with the
other, it can blur the lines and boundaries we make and force upon the world. A
story can challenge our reactions to the thousands of images in the media, the
streams of dehumanized people. It can awaken our emotions, make us focus on an
individual so they are no longer a face in a crowd. It can help us to imagine
the feelings of fear and loss, devastation and trauma, love and hope and all
the other emotions in between. A story can melt our hearts and our prejudices.
If we can feel the pain of others and walk in their shoes, thatÕs a powerful
starting place and my hope was that The
Beekeeper of Aleppo would be able to achieve that.
Empathy can move us to act when possible. It can help us to be mindful,
and to take a step back, to give another space and the right to live happily
and safely. Empathy is the starting point of peace and peace is a complex
puzzle that needs to extend to the entire world and the entirety of living
beings upon this world. So, when we can say I
promise never to add to your pain and I will look after that promise as I look
after my own life – then peace will blossom, one flower at a time.Ó
Organizers previously announced
that Margaret Atwood, the bestselling author (The HandmaidÕs Tale, CatÕs Eye, and The MaddAddam Trilogy) whose critically
acclaimed fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have offered prescient warnings about
the political consequences of individual complacency, will receive the 2020 Ambassador
Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named in honor of the noted U.S.
diplomat who helped negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords.
Winners were selected by a judging panel of prominent writers including Hua Hsu
(staff writer at the New Yorker,
author of A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy
and Failure Across the Pacific), Diane Roberts (Dreams, other work has appeared in the New York Times, the Times
of London, the Guardian, the Washington Post, the Oxford American, Flamingo, and Garden &
Gun,former NPR commentator), Brando Skyhorse (The Madonnas of
Echo Park and Take This Man: A Memoir), and Anne Fadiman (The Wine LoverÕs
Daughter: A Memoir, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, two essay collections, Ex Libris and At Large and At
Small).
To be eligible for the 2020 awards,
English-language books had to be published or translated into English in 2019
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.
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 is recognized as one of the worldÕs most prestigious
literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United
States. Inspired by the Dayton Peace Accords, 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. One runner-up in each category is awarded a $5,000 cash
prize. Additionally, the Ambassador
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, John Irving,
Barbara Kingsolver, Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, N.
Scott Momaday, Tim O'Brien, Marilynne Robinson, Gloria Steinem, Studs Terkel, ColmT—ib’n, and Elie Wiesel. For more information visit the Dayton Literary
Peace Prize media center at https://www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/press-room/.
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