This year’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize winners have been announced. There were more than 70 nominees for the prizes this year. From member station WYSO in Yellow Springs, Jerry Kenney reports on who got the top spots.
Topping this year’s fiction category is Chang-rae Lee, chosen for his Novel "The Surrendered." Wilbert Rideau picked up the non-fiction prize for his prison memoir - "In the Place of Justice." Co-founder and Director of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Sharon Rab says choosing Rideau may seem like an unusual pick.
"At first blush, I know it seems very odd that a peace prize would be given to a confessed murderer, but he is called the most rehabilitated prisoner in the history of America. And he readily admits the thing that brought him out of being a person who was destroyed, and had destroyed, was reading and wrting."
Finalists for the prize are chosen by a national panel of readers, and the winners are chosen by a committee of four.
Since 2006 the Dayton Literary Peace Prize has honored writers whose work promotes peace, social justice and global understanding
The awards will be presented at a ceremony in Dayton. on Nov. 13th
