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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2009 > November > 09 > Entry
Editorial: Literary peace prize good for Dayton, the cause
Ever since the Dayton peace talks of 1995, civic-minded and outward-looking Daytonians have struggled to sustain the connection between the word “Dayton” and the word “peace.”
That connection was in much of the world in the decade after the talks. Those talks ended the Bosnian war and brought a troubled peace to the Balkans.
The Daytonians have not approached the task through gimmickry and marketing. Instead, they have looked for ways to make a continuing contribution peace.
They understand that the presence of the talks here was something that just happened to Dayton. Why not actually do something to merit and continue the local connection to the word?
They have put together impressive international conferences where experts and influential people have confronted the continuing problems of the Balkans. They have awarded a peace prize to political and philanthropic figures. They have fostered people-to-people connections between Daytonians and Bosnians and others in the Balkans.
Sustaining these efforts has not been easy. But one project that clearly has legs, that bids to become an ongoing institution, is the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
Over the weekend, the fourth annual prizes were awarded. The Lifetime Achievement Award went to New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and his wife Sheryl WuDunn. Readers of this newspaper are familiar with the kind of selfless work they do that won the judges’ attention.
The award for a 2008 non-fiction book went to E. Benjamin Skinner, for “A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery.” It’s an eye-opening piece of journalism that sent the now 33-year-old author to the hellholes of the world. The fiction prize for a 2008 work went to Richard Bausch for “Peace,” a book about war. This story of three Americans in World War II explores the relationships of mortal enemies in prolonged horror.
Also present for a series of events over the weekend were past winners, including Taylor Branch, last year’s winner of the lifetime award for his trilogy about Martin Luther King Jr. He presented this year’s lifetime award. (His current book, “The Clinton Tapes,” is his report on years of private conversations, meant for the historical record, with President Bill Clinton.)
Like many of the winning authors during these last few years, Mr. Branch has clearly connected to Dayton. He talked publicly about his mother’s presence last year and how she had wanted to come back this year.
Mr. Skinner said the award has been a “game changer” for his book (if not necessarily for the cause of abolishing slavery, which is germinating, at best). He meant the prize had won him the kind of attention a book needs to make an impact.
When making his acceptance speech on the stage of the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts, Mr. Skinner put his phone behind him, turning on its speaker, so that his elderly parents at home could hear the event.
Novelist Bausch spoke movingly about the role of the written word in pursuit of peace and movingly about the event, saying he, too, would be back to Dayton.
More than one speaker jokingly referred to the assembled audience as “radicals” for their pursuit of such an unlikely goal as world peace. But there was little of political bias about the event. It was, indeed, an effort to recognize those who rise above combat with fellow Americans to find what they can do that really matters.
The effort — led by volunteers Sharon Rab, Mark Meister and Doris Ponitz, among so many others — graces Dayton.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Dayton Peace Accords and Other Peace Initiatives, Editorials, Martin Gottlieb
Comments
By karl
November 9, 2009 8:39 PM | Link to this
an impressive event bring famous writers to Dayton to discuss the issues of our time. A remarkable group and so literate, articulate and open to meet and discuss. Congrats to all involved.
By Leon Harrison
November 10, 2009 4:41 PM | Link to this
Next year, they could at least hold this ceremony somewhere in the Middle East, and let women writers dress and act like painted Western whores who refuse to hide their skin from men by wearing burkas and chaddors.