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Dayton Peace Accords

Finalists Announce for Dayton Literary Peace Prize

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dlpp_seal-140x98Recognizing the power of literature to promote peace and reconciliation, the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation today announced the finalists for the 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize in fiction and nonfiction.

Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding. This year’s winners will be honored at a gala ceremony hosted by award-winning journalist Nick Clooney in Dayton on November 20th to be held at the Schuster Center.

Organizers announced in August that novelist and essayist Marilynne Robinson (Housekeeping, Gilead) will be the recipient of the 2016 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named in honor of the celebrated U.S. diplomat who helped negotiate the Dayton Peace Accords.

The shortlist includes “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Sympathizer” by Viet Thanh Nguyen, “Nagasaki”i by Susan Southard, “Find Me Unafraid” by Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner, and “A Little Life” by Hanya Yanagihara.
The 2016 Dayton Literary Peace Prize fiction finalists are:

• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara: Four college classmates—broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition — seek fame and fortune in New York city in this hymn to brotherly bonds. A masterful depiction of love in the twenty-first century, Yanagihara’s stunning novel is about the families we are born into and those that we make for ourselves.

• Delicious Foods by James Hannaham: Held captive on a mysterious farm and under the sway of an overpowering addiction, a widow struggles to reunite with her young son. Hannaham’s daring and shape-shifting prose infuses his characters with grace and humor while wrestling with timeless questions of forgiveness, redemption, and the will to survive.

• Green on Blue by Elliot Ackerman: A young Afghan orphan is forced to join a US-funded militia in order to save his brother, who is hospitalized after an attack on their village, in this morally complex debut novel about the harrowing, intractable nature of war and the sacrifices we make for love.

• Orhan’s Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian: Drawing on her own family history, Ohanesian pulls back the curtain on a devastating chapter of the Armenian Holocaust, moving between the 1990s and the 1915 Ottoman Empire in this remarkable debut novel about war and recovery, crimes and reparations.

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen: This profound, startling, and beautifully crafted debut novel tells the story of a man of two minds whose lofty ideals necessitate his betrayal of the people closest to him. Both gripping spy yarn and astute exploration of extreme politics, The Sympathizer examines the legacy of the Vietnam War in literature, film, and the wars we fight today.

• Youngblood by Matt Gallagher: During the final dark days of the War in Iraq, newly minted lieutenant Jack Porter struggles with the preparations for withdrawal from the country, especially the alliances with warlords who have Arab and American blood on their hands.

The 2016 nonfiction finalists are

• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Masterfully weaving together lyrical personal narrative, reimagined history, and fresh, emotionally-charged reportage, Coates shares the story of his awakening to the truth about history and his place in the world, in the process mapping a winding path from fear and confusion to a full and honest understanding of this country, this world, and how we can all get free.

• Find Me Unafraid by Kennedy Odede and Jessica Posner: An African man and an American woman share their love story and recount their efforts to empower young people – including founding the first tuition-free school for girls – in Odede’s hometown of Kibera, the largest slum in Africa.

• Nagasaki by Susan Southard: Narrative journalist Southard spent over a decade interviewing survivors, historians, physicians, psychologists, and archivists to take readers from the morning the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki to the modern-day city, offering an intimate, immediate account of one of the most controversial wartime acts in history.

• Showdown: Thurgood Marshall and the Supreme Court Nomination That Changed America by Wil Haygood: Using the framework of the contentious five-day Senate hearing to confirm Marshall as the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Haygood creates a provocative look at Marshall’s life as well as the politicians, lawyers, activists, and others who shaped the early civil rights movement.

• The Reason You Walk by Wab Kinew: After learning that his father, an accomplished but distant aboriginal Canadian, has cancer, his son spends a year reconnecting with him. By turns lighthearted and solemn, Kinew gives us an inspiring vision for family and cross-cultural reconciliation, and a wider conversation about the future of aboriginal peoples.

• The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell: This dramatic, never-before-told story of a secret FDR-approved WWII Texas internment camp reveals the war-time hysteria against the Japanese and Germans in America, the secrets of FDR’s tactics to rescue high-profile POWs in Germany and Japan, and how the definition of American citizenship changed under the pressure of war.

A winner and runner-up in fiction and nonfiction will be announced on October 11. Winners receive a $10,000 honorarium and runners-up receive $2,500. Finalists will be reviewed by a judging panel of prominent writers including Alexander Chee (Edinburgh, Queen of the Night), Christine Schutt (Florida, All Souls), Ruben Martinez (Desert America: A Journey Across Our Most Divided Landscape, Crossing Over: A Mexican Family on the Migrant Trail), and Evelyn McDonnell (Rock She Wrote: Women Write about Rock, Pop and Rap, Queens of Noise: The Real Story of the Runaways).

To be eligible for the 2016 awards, English-language books must be published or translated into English in 2015 and address the theme of peace on a variety of levels, such as between individuals, among families and communities, or between nations, religions, or ethnic groups.

Dayton Peace Accords – Fifteen Years Later

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(submitted by Matt Joseph)

Fifteen years ago this month, the agreement that ended the war in Bosnia was negotiated and initialed here in Dayton.  Most people around here know that, and probably remember the talks that happened at Wright-Patterson AFB.   The war, the largest of the wars of dissolution of the former Yugoslavia, had lasted three and a half years and cost over a hundred thousand lives, a huge number of them civilians killed in attempts to eradicate a specific ethnic group.  The Dayton Peace Accords ended the war and created the constitutional structure that is still in force in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke chose Dayton as the summit site for a number of reasons.  Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, provided sufficient accommodations for the nine participating delegations at a location easy for US diplomats to reach from the East Coast, it sealed the participants off from the ravenous East Coast press, allowed Holbrooke to completely control the talks’ physical environment, and also the delegations’ movement and contacts,  and prominently displayed America’s air power.  Holding the talks in Dayton enabled Holbrooke’s use of the “Big Bang” strategy – now known in diplomacy circles as a “Dayton” – where negotiators are more or less locked into an area until they reach an agreement.   For our part, Daytonians welcomed the negotiators and then formed human peace chains around the base, holding candlelight vigils, and praying for peace throughout the 21 days of talks.

You can read the history of the war, and of the Dayton negotiations & remarks specifically, in a number of authoritative accounts, and I won’t repeat it here.  What I would like to do is talk about two effects of the Accords on Dayton.

Sarajevo

The first affect the Accords had on Dayton was to instantly create a bond between Daytonians and the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.  Even today, whether they liked the terms of the Accords or not, everyone in those three countries knows about Dayton and what happened here.  The City of Dayton is Sister City to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and numerous organizations and institutions like the Friendship Force and the University of Dayton have established productive exchanges and programs over the last 15 years.  In addition, like many American cities, we now have a group of immigrants living here in Dayton from the countries who were involved in the war.  As anyone who has seen the South Slavic Club dancers perform or eaten some ćevapi sausages at World A’Fair can attest, they are enhancing our cultural richness.  Also, with the language ability they bring, and their experience in distinct cultures, they can potentially help us compete on the world stage in a number of areas.   I know that as a community we have not utilized them as a resource as fully as we should have.

Second, because of the high profile of the war in Bosnia, the Accords placed Dayton in the world’s spotlight for an entire month.  This sort of exposure is hard to come by, and its value is nearly impossible to measure, in a world where travel and communications advances have enabled rapid cross-border commerce and conversation, where the overseas success of a business could partially rest on it coming from a city with a recognizable international reputation.  The Accords have given Dayton our second shot at that exposure and reputation, and our first since the world-shaking successes of the Wright brothers one hundred years ago.

We are doing a better job of promoting our city as the home of the Wright brothers than we used to.  The bicycle shop is doing well, the hangar at the flying field at Wright Patt is looking great, and we are finally growing more comfortable with our Wright brothers image or brand. The question being discussed now isn’t whether we should focus on the Wrights, but on the best way to do it.

Even though the Dayton Peace Accords are lower-profile (except in Bosnia itself) than the Wrights, I propose that we should do more to capitalize on the fact that the Accords happened here.  As I mentioned earlier, there are many organizations who maintain close relationships with people in Bosnia and the region.  Through them, we are doing a good job of keeping the personal connections strong.  However, there are more things we can do to take advantage of the increased visibility and recognition the Accords have given us both in Bosnia and throughout the world.  I would like to suggest the following as possible ways to help our city by using the Accords to our advantage.

1.       We could collect and archive documents from the Dayton Peace Accords.  The Accords utilized a unique model to reach agreement between the warring parties, one that is still being studied and analyzed, and we would likely gain some international attention as the prime location for that analysis.

2.       We could mobilize our current immigrant population from Southeast Europe and our universal name recognition there to encourage skilled immigrants to come to Dayton, and following the model provided by our new Ahiska Turk population (and countless other immigrant waves over the last 200 years,) revitalize a neighborhood or two and provide new energy to the city.

3.       We could come up with a strategy to exploit the historic sites of the Accords to attract historical and other tourists.  Other cities have opened museums and offer tours with displays, reenactments and other attractions that highlight their roles in major negotiations, agreements, signings and other historically significant events, but we haven’t even tried to do this here.  I think we should at least take a look at the feasibility of such a coordinated effort.

4.       We could endow an academic chair at a local university to teach about the region or to research and teach about applying lessons learned in our involvement in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

5.       Before the war, Bosnia and Herzegovina was a highly industrialized place, with a skilled workforce.  Now they are making the transition, like we are, to the information-based economy.  There are progressive minds in the region looking to increase the number of companies working on new green technologies, and in other areas that coincide with areas that we are working in, like the heat pump systems that use groundwater instead of outside air to heat and cool buildings.  Perhaps we should research and assist our local companies in signing cooperative agreements with business incubators and small businesses in Bosnia and Herzegovina, along the same lines as the model Montgomery County is using in Israel today.  We hold the same advantage in this case, which is access to the huge US market for these technologies.  If we can use this advantage to create jobs here in Dayton, using new innovative technologies, we should.

In these days of cynicism about government, and the general reluctance of people to put aside their own personal comfort for a greater goal, the Accords are especially good for us to remember.   We Americans, through our government’s action, ended a horribly vicious war, and the peace has held, even though the political situation continues to be unruly there, 15 years later.  We can be proud of the small but crucial role we played, and we should do more to take advantage of the fact that the Accords took place here in Dayton.

To that end, this coming weekend, UD, WSU and Sinclair, along with a number of other partners, are sponsoring two events to commemorate the 15 years since the Accords were negotiated here.  There is a dinner on Friday night at the Hope Hotel, in the same room that the accords were initialed, and there is a policy forum on Saturday from 9 to 4:30 at UD.  The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Minister Sven Alkalaj, will be here for both events, along with the Mayor of Sarajevo, Dr. Alija Behmen, and a number of other guests and experts from the region.  We are including, for the first time, a greater focus on the status of average people caught in the conflict, with one panel talking about everyday life in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and another discussing the experiences of the immigrants who came here during and after the war.  As of this morning, there are still seats available for both the dinner and the forum.   I’d like to see us make this weekend’s events the start of a more focused strategy to take advantage of the opportunities granted to us by the historical quirk of the Accords’ signing here in Dayton, and I hope you will join in both this weekend, and in what will come after.

If you would like more information, go to www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/accords_update.htm, and to order tickets to the Banquet, or RSVP for the Forum, please visit: http://daytonpeaceaccordsat15.eventbrite.com, or call Kate Evans at 333-3659.

Commemorate the Dayton Peace Accords

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From OhioHistoryCentral.org: The agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on December 14, 1995. These accords put an end to the three and a half year long war in Bosnia, one of the armed conflicts in the former Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia.

You’ve heard of the Dayton Peace Accords.  You know it’s a big deal.  But you may not know exactly who, why, and how it all came together right here in Dayton, Ohio to end the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.  November 5th thru 7th, you can join in the commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary and experience fuller understanding of this important turning point through great events featuring distinguished guests.

More information is available here: http://www.daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/accords_update.htm

The commemoration includes a banquet at the Hope Hotel on Friday, Nov. 5 and a public forum in Kennedy Union on Saturday, Nov. 6.  These events will be held in conjunction with the awarding of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize on Sunday, Nov. 7.  These events are being supported by The City of Dayton, Montgomery County, Dayton International Airport, University of Dayton, Wright State University, Sinclair Community College, Central State University, Dayton Literary Peace Prize Committee, and Dayton Sister Cities Committee.

The banquet and forum will feature many distinguished guests, including the Minister of Foreign Affairs for BiH (H. E. Sven Alkalaj), the Mayor of Sarajevo (Dr. Alija Behmen), and the Executive Director of Migration and Refugee Services for the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (Amb. Johnny Young).

Please consider attending one or more of these events, and help spread the word about them.  The hosts are particularly interested in having students and community members attend the forum.

Details on the November 5 BANQUET: There will be a banquet on the evening of November 5th for Dayton residents and others to remember the negotiations and the many people we came into contact with during those days and in the last fifteen years. The banquet will be held at the Hope Hotel at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the same place where the Accords were negotiated and initialed in 1995.  Tickets for the banquet ($45) may be purchased on-line at:  http://daytonpeaceaccordsat15.eventbrite.com/.

Details on the November 6 FORUM:

Now, fifteen years later, they are holding a forum (free to attend) on November 6, 2010, at the University of Dayton, with three goals in mind.

  1. To discuss the current situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina and take a look at what US policy towards BiH should be now and in the immediate future.
  2. To discuss how our experience in Bosnia and Herzegovina has and will change US policy approaches in resolving other conflicts.
  3. To hear from those who left Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who now live in Dayton, about their positive and negative experiences here in the US.

The forum at UD on Nov. 6 is free-of-charge, but they request an on-line registration.  People who want to attend the forum can register at http://daytonpeaceaccordsat15.eventbrite.com/.  A buffet lunch will be offered free-of-charge.

Details on the November 7 Authors Event: If you missed getting your tickets to the big reception for the Literary Peace Prize winners (or couldn’t afford them), you can still hear the winners  speak on Sunday, November 7th at 11:30 AM at Books and Co. at the Greene.  Attached are details directly from the Books and Co. event calendar.

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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 7; 11:30 AM @ The Greene

Conversation and Brunch with the Winners of the 2010 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. Come for a luscious brunch prepared by Brio Tuscan Grille and enjoy conversation with our visiting authors: DAVE EGGERS, author of Zeitoun, Nonfiction Award winner, MARLON JAMES, author of The Book of Night Women, Fiction Award winner, and GERALDINE BROOKS, Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and author of March (Pulitzer Prize winner), Year of Wonders, and People of the Book. Marsha Bonhart from WDTN-TV2 will emcee the program.

There is a $10 donation for the brunch, which is a fundraiser for The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation. You can pay at the event, but please RSVP to worldpeace2010@att.net by November 2, so Brio can prepare accordingly. Those who want to hear the authors but not partake of the brunch are certainly welcome to attend at 12:15 pm, with no charge.

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So there are quite a few ways to commemorate the 15th Anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords.  The event coordinators share their mission that, “after these events are complete, we hope to be able to say that we have advanced the understanding of BiH by US citizens and perhaps that we have helped shine a light on some ways to improve peoples’ lives in Bosnia and Herzegovina.”

For additional information, please call Kate Evans in the Dayton City Commission office at:  333-3659.