The finalists for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize were revealed today–six fiction writers and six non-fiction writers. Winners will receive a $10,000 honorarium, and runners-up will receive $1,000.
The fiction category recognized Lucy Beckett, Ha Jin, Abraham Verghese, Marlon James, Eugenia Kim, and Chimamanda Adiche. The non-fiction category included Roger Thurow & Scott Kilman, Justine Hardy, Greg Mortenson, Michael & Elizabeth Norman, Chinua Achebe, and Dave Eggers.
According to the press release: “The 2010 finalists also explore a diverse range of challenging issues ranging from cultural dislocation (A Good Fall by Ha Jin) to famine (Enough by Roger Thurow & Scott Kilman) to the impact of war crimes and mass murder (Tears in the Darkness by Michael & Elizabeth Norman, A Postcard from the Volcano by Lucy Beckett) and are set in locations around the world, including Nigeria (The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Adiche), Jamaica (The Book of Night Women by Marlon James), Kashmir (In the Valley of the Mist by Justine Hardy), and Ethiopia (Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese).”
In August, the organization named Geraldine Brooks the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Award for Lifetime Achievement. Brooks spent several years as a journalist for the Wall Street Journal covering the crises in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. Her novel March won her the Pulitzer Prize in 2006.