The 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement will go to Geraldine Brooks–a $10,000 award.
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.
She had this statement: “It’s always a thrill to have one’s work recognized, but this prize holds particular meaning to me because I covered the fighting in the Balkans as a journalist and I know what peace can mean to a civilian population that has been besieged and violated by years of war. In these times, particularly, it is good to be reminded of what was achieved at Dayton, and that it is at the table, rather than on the battlefield, that wars may be brought to an end.”
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize will also recognize the achievements of one fiction author and one nonfiction author. The winners will be announced in September, each receiving $10,000.
Brooks is now part of an illustrious group of past Lifetime Achievement honorees including Studs Terkel (The Good War), Elie Wiesel (Night), and Nicholas Kristof (Half the Sky).
Brooks’ other titles include Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Foreign Correspondence: A Pen Pal’s Journey from Down Under to All Over, Year of Wonders, and People of the Book.