Ann Patchett to Receive the Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award
Dayton, OH (June 17, 2026)— The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, the first and only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States, today announced the finalists for the 2026 Dayton Literary Peace Prize, honoring books published in 2025. The Foundation also announced that beloved novelist and essayist Ann Patchett will receive the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, bestowed upon a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize’s mission of fostering peace, social justice, and global understanding.
When informed of her award win, Ann Patchett said, “The Dayton Literary Peace Prize reminds us of what is possible. I am honored to be a part of this legacy.”
On the decision to honor Patchett with the Holbrooke Award, Nicholas A. Raines, Executive Director of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation said, “Ann Patchett has spent her career reminding us that literature is a necessity—it is the very medium through which we understand one another. Her novels return, again and again, to the questions that animate this prize: How do we build community across difference? How do we forgive? How do we repair what has been broken? At a moment when those questions feel more urgent than ever, honoring Ann Patchett with the Holbrooke Award is an act of faith in the power of storytelling to encourage empathy, foster human connection, and lead us toward a more humane world.”
Ann Patchett is the author of novels, most recently the #1 New York Times bestselling Whistler, as well as works of nonfiction and children’s books. She has received numerous honors, including the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the Book Sense Book of the Year. Her novel The Dutch House was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Time magazine named Patchett one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World and President Biden awarded her the National Humanities Medal in recognition of her contributions to American culture. She lives in Nashville, Tennessee, where she is the owner of Parnassus Books.
Patchett’s books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have influenced generations of readers to believe in the transformative power of storytelling and community. Her lifetime of work is as deeply empathetic as it is far-reaching. The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation’s recognition of Patchett’s legacy honors not only her unshakable commitment to the written word as a force for connection and understanding, but for her relentless advocacy for independent bookshops and literary culture—especially in schools—has helped shape global conversations.
Inspired by the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnian War in 1995, the annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize honors writers whose work demonstrates the power of the written word to foster peace. The winners each receive a $10,000 cash prize, and the first runners-up receive a $5,000 cash prize.