Vietnam veteran and author Tim O'Brien has been named the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's distinguished achievement award.
O'Brien's books and short stories show war from a regular soldier's eyes and also chronicle its long-lasting impacts. He wrote about his Vietnam experience as an Army infantryman in the 1973 memoir: "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home." Subsequent works have combined fiction with real details from his experience.
The award was renamed last year for the late U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrooke, who brokered the 1995 Dayton peace accords on Bosnia. The Dayton literary awards are given to recognize the power of literature in promoting peace and global understanding. Annual fiction and nonfiction awards will be made later this year.