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TAYLOR BRANCH TO RECEIVE DAYTON LITERARY
PEACE PRIZE FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT
 

Pulitzer Prize-winning Historian To Join Past Recipients
Elie Wiesel and Studs Terkel;
Deadline for 2008 Fiction and Non-Fiction Submissions is May 3, 2008 [now extended to June 10, 2008]

www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org

Dayton, OH (April 29, 2008) � The premier chronicler of America�s civil rights era will receive a special Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Lifetime Achievement, organizers announced today.

Taylor Branch, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning trilogy America in the King Years is widely considered the definitive history of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement, will accept the award at a ceremony in Dayton, Ohio on September 28, 2008. Previous Lifetime Achievement honorees include authors Studs Terkel and Elie Wiesel.

Celebrating the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. It was founded in 2006 as an outgrowth of the Dayton Peace Prize, which commemorates the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia. Over the past decade, the Dayton Peace Prize has been given to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, President Bill Clinton, and Ambassador Richard Holbrooke.

The ceremony will also honor recipients of the 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction and Nonfiction. The deadline for 2008 submissions is May 3, 2008 [now extended to June 10, 2008].

Branch has won nearly every major American literary award for his acclaimed trilogy America in the King Years, an epic history of the civil rights era spanning Martin Luther King, Jr.�s political beginnings in 1954 through his assassination in 1968. The trilogy includes the Pulitzer Prize-winning Parting the Waters (1988), which also won the National Book Critics Circle Award; Pillar of Fire (1998); and At Canaan�s Edge (2006).

"Through his extraordinary work, Taylor Branch has reminded us all that Dr. King�s legacy to humankind was not just his leadership on civil rights, but his commitment to the power of nonviolence,� said Sharon Rab, chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Committee. �On the fortieth anniversary of King�s death, we could not think of an author more deserving of this honor.�

"I am honored to be recognized by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize in the cause of peace, and humbled to be mentioned in the company of Studs Terkel and Elie Wiesel" said Branch.

Recipients of the 2008 Dayton Literary Peace Prize will be announced in August 2008 and honored at a ceremony hosted by award-winning journalist Nick Clooney in Dayton on September 28, 2008.

To be considered for the 2008 awards, publishers must submit English-language books published in 2007. Submissions may address the theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or among nations, religions, or ethnic groups. The submission deadline is May 3, 2008 [now extended to June 10, 2008].

Submissions may be sent to Sharon Rab at [email protected] or by mail at P.O. Box 461, Wright Brothers Branch, Dayton, OH 45409. Please see www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org for more information about nomination criteria.

Peace,

Sharon Rab
Chair, Dayton Literary Peace Prize

About the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work uses the power of literature to foster peace, social justice, and global understanding. Launched in 2006, it has already established itself as one of the world�s most prestigious literary honors, and is the only literary peace prize awarded in the United States. As an offshoot of the Dayton Peace Prize, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards a $10,000 cash prize each year to one fiction and one nonfiction author whose work advances peace as a solution to conflict, and leads readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. An annual lifetime achievement award is also bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize's mission; previous honorees included Studs Terkel and Elie Wiesel.

(Download the full press release in PDF format.)