The elegant and inspiring award dinner and ceremony, which takes place tonight on the stage of the Schuster Center’s Mead Theatre, now sells out within a few days. The variety of related programs and events that surround the award range from book group discussions on the chosen books to university classes and a Sunday morning panel discussion with the honorees that is open to the community.
In the spotlight this year are Colm Toíbín, winner of the Richard C. Holbrooke Award for Distinguished Achievement; fiction winner Patrcia Engel for her book "The Veins of the Ocean" and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist David Wood for his non-fiction book, "What Have We Done." The runner-up for fiction is Yaa Guisa for "Homegoing;" Ben Rawlence is the non-fiction runner-up for "City of Thorns."
A major volunteer effort
Although the award now receives international attention, less well publicized are the dedicated volunteers who make it all possible.
“People think that the Dayton Literary Peace Prize is concentrated in the fall, but planning and executing the plan go on all year,” explains Sharon Rab, the project’s founder and co-chair and the public face of the endeavor. Committees range from marketing and development to transportation and educational outreach. Volunteers also plan specific events including the popular “Sunday Conversations with the Authors,” and the Authors’ Reception the weekend of the event.
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“They plan, they raise money, they drive, they design projects and programs for schools, universities, libraries,” says Rab about her volunteers. “They get out the invitations — addressing them, assembling them, sealing, stamping them.” When the honored guests arrive in Dayton, transportation chair Mark Harmon makes certain members of his committee greet honorees at the airport and escort them throughout the weekend.
“It goes on and on and it never stops,” says Rab. “Whole projects like the Evening for Peace and Justice and the Author Conversations at Dayton Metro Library are totally volunteer driven. The entire prize is dependent upon volunteers.”
Meister co-chairs
One of the most committed volunteers is Mark Meister, President & CEO of the Dayton Society of Natural History, who initially served on the board of “Dayton: A Peace Process,” the precursor of the DLPP. He has been co-chair of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation since its inception.
“My primary role has always been on the financial and organizational side with Sharon Rab handling the literary and educational portion of the operations,” Meister explains. “The organization has been volunteer-run since its start. While independent contractors have helped with some functions over the years, it was just this year that the DLPP hired its first part-time employee, administrative assistant Emily Kretzer.
When the winning authors come to Dayton for the awards weekend, Meister notes, they are astounded by the size and receptivity of their audiences and “blown away” by the awards event at the Schuster Center. “The beauty of the facility and the unique awards dinner on the stage, coupled with the brilliant comments of the winners and the final chorus from the Central State University Choir, make for an intellectually and emotionally riveting evening,” he says. “For me, and for the other volunteers, it has been gratifying to see how many of the authors have become staunch advocates of the DLPP and are out in the world spreading the word about this event and the reading public in Dayton.”
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It’s an unintended consequence of the awards, Meister says, that the DLPP has created a cadre of authors dedicated to Dayton and what’s is being done here. “And, we’ve inadvertently created a network of authors who meet here and then become friends and collaborators.”
Many former winners return to Dayton to volunteer as award presenters. One of those is Gilbert King, who will serve as tonight's master of ceremonies. King was the 2013 non-fiction runner-up for his book "Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America" which won the Pulitzer Prize.
“I’m returning because this community is the most inspiring group of readers I’ve ever been around,” King says. ” Under Sharon Rab’s leadership, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize brings a remarkable collection of writers together each year, and it’s just an honor to be a part of it.” He says he feels incredibly lucky to count so many folks from Dayton as good friends. “And I would do anything to promote peace and social justice for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.”
Just keeps growing
Meister says Dayton continues to live up to its reputation as a “reading” city. “It has been exciting to see how the community has responded by initiating related programming to supplement our activities,” he says. “Numerous book clubs specifically choose to read DLPP winners, libraries hold special programs on the books, and they are chosen for ‘Big Read’ projects in schools and universities.”
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Another outgrowth of the award is the Author’s Series which takes place in August or September each year and is entirely organized by volunteers. For that event, former winners present at a local high school to an audience comprised of students from multiple schools in the region, and then to a small group of DLPP patrons at a private evening event.
Thanks to Mary Ann Gasior, a former First Reader for the project, a six-week class on the winning books has become one of the most popular courses at University of Dayton’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. She’s taught it for the past six years. In addition to discussing each of that year’s winners and runners-up, she shares each author’s acceptance speech and Skypes with the author when possible.
“I continue to teach the seminar every winter because I think these are important books that deal with significant issues, the authors all seem to appreciate the readers of Dayton and every year I learn something new,” Gasior says. ” For anyone who loves to read and wants to ponder the profound issues of our time, you can’t go wrong with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize winners.”
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The main challenges in teaching these books, Gasior says, relates to the length of some of them and the usually gritty subject matter that may include everything from war and poverty to discrimination and all types of abuse. "These are serious themes and I counteract these concerns by focusing on how studying mankind's problems may help us solve some of them," she says.
Meister says it’s amazing to realize that in such a short time the Dayton Literary Peace Prize has become one of the world’s most prestigious literary awards. “I feel privileged to be a part of this activity that promotes peace through literature and that continues to embellish Dayton as the City of Peace.”
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