Kaveh Akbar and Sunil Amrith are the winners of this year’s Dayton Literary Peace Prizes, along with Salman Rushdie, who received a special award for distinguished achievement. The prizes are given annually to authors of books “that have led readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view.”
Akbar won the fiction award for his novel Martyr!, which the prize organizers called “a lyrical exploration of identity, faith, and the search for meaning.” Akbar’s novel was also a finalist for the National Book Award last year.
Amrith was named the winner in the nonfiction category for The Burning Earth: A History, which organizers called “a compelling narrative that challenges our understanding of the modern world.” The book was previously longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award.
The runners-up for the awards were Priscilla Morris for Black Butterflies in fiction and Lauren Markham for A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging in nonfiction.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation also announced that Rushdie is the winner of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Previous winners of the special prize include Elie Wiesel, Barbara Kingsolver, Louise Erdrich, and John Irving.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize was established in 2006. Previous winners include Edwidge Danticat for Brother, I’m Dying; Clint Smith for How the Word Is Passed; Chang-Rae Lee for The Surrendered; and Alice Hoffman for The World That We Knew.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
