Dayton Literary Peace Prize

Logo for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, an international award features a blue, open book with blue and gold bird images emerging from it.

Wright Library is pleased to partner with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize to host a DLPP-honored author each November. 

About the Dayton Literary Peace Prize

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, inaugurated in 2006 and inspired by the Dayton Accords which ended the Bosnian War, is the first and only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize invites nominations in adult fiction and nonfiction books published within the past year that have led readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view. 

Their mission: To advance peace through literature. 

Their goal: Support those who write, publish, read, and share literature that advances peace.

The Wright Library DLPP Collection

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize (DLPP) collection at Wright Library features fiction and nonfiction titles from DLPP finalists since the DLPP was initiated in 2006. The collection is located on the Main Level of the library near the front entrance. 

Find books by DLPP authors by visiting this special section at Wright Library or browse Wright Library's DLPP Collection in the library catalog.

DLPP 2025 Finalists

Wright Library is excited to again partner with the DLPP by hosting a select author in early November. Details forthcoming, but for now, you can check out titles from these 2025 finalists:

2025 Fiction DLPP Finalists2025 Non-fiction DLPP Finalists
  • "Black Butterflies" by Priscilla Morris (Alfred A. Knoph)
  • "Freedom is a Feast" by Alejandro Puyana (Little, Brown and Company)
  • "James" by Percival Everett (Penguin Random House, Doubleday)
  • "Martyr!" by Kaveh Akbar (Alfred A. Knopf, Penguin Random House US)
  • "The Good Deed" by Helen Benedict (Red Hen Press)
  • "The Women: A Novel" by Kristin Hannah (St. Martin’s Publishing Group) 
  • "A Map of Future Ruins" by Lauren Markham (Penguin Random House, Riverhead Books)
  • "John Lewis" by David Greenberg (Simon & Schuster)
  • "Nuclear War: A Scenario" by Annie Jacobson (Penguin Random House, Dutton)
  • "Solidarity: The Past, Present, and Future of a World-Changing Idea" by Leah Hunt-Hendrix and Astra Taylor (Pantheon Books, Penguin Random House)
  • "The Burning Earth" by Sunil Amrith (W. W. Norton & Company)
  • "The Home I Worked to Make: Voices from the New Syrian Diaspora" by Wendy Pearlman (Liveright Publishing)

 

Past Dayton Literary Peace Prize Events at Wright Library

(2024) A Conversation with Ben Fountain, 2013 DLPP Fiction runner-up for Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.

(2023) A Conversation with Lily Brooks-Dalton, 2023 DLPP Fiction runner-up for The Light Pirate.

(2022) A Conversation with Jordan Ritter, 2021  DLPP Nonfiction runner-up for The Road from Raqqa : A Story of Brotherhood, Borders, and Belonging.