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A Different Peace Prize

September 11, 2008 Today's sober anniversary will be marked here in Washington, DC by the dedication of the new Pentagon 9/11 memorial in honor of the 184 men and women who lost their lives in the attack seven years ago.

It seems a fitting day to talk about peace, something we all want.

Last week the third annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize was awarded to Junot Diaz for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and to Edwidge Danticat for Brother, I'm Dying. The prize is given annually 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." (The winners, including runners-up Daniel Alarcon and Cullen Murphy and Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Taylor Branch, will be honored at a September 28th gala in Dayton hosted by journalist Nick Clooney.)

While both of these authors eminently deserve this award (I've read both books; not only do they fulfill the Prize's goals, they are extraordinary works), I believe that most of the best writing strives at least to provide better understanding of other people and perspectives. 

So, I'm wondering: which book of 2008 (so far) would you nominate as the one that best advances that old but never tired saw: "Only connect?"

My pick, which admittedly might leave some out that I can't remember, since it's about 7:30 a.m. as I type: Jo Graham's Black Ships. This isn't my usual reading; I rarely choose fantasy. However, this historical novel from Orbit, which is based on re-imagining The Aeneid, really impressed me with the author's deep care in examining each character's motivations as their ship sought safe harbor...in other words, peace.

Posted by Bethanne Patrick on September 11, 2008 | Comments (0)