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A Peace in Mind

By Camila Sánchez-González

Camila Sánchez-González, University of Dayton class of 2023, gives insight into the Dayton Literary Peace Prize collection offered in the Roesch Library. Here she dives in into what the prize is, its importance, and her perspective on past and present finalists.

What is it? 

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is the only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace. 

  • Mission: To advance peace through literature. 
  • Goal: Support those who write, publish, read and share literature that advances peace. 

How does it accomplish these goals and vision? 

By engaging about and selecting literature from a diverse range of authors, backgrounds, and stories, the DLPP strives to incorporate and dive into topics that are difficult to discuss but nonetheless need to be addressed. These authors and these stories (nonfiction, fiction, etc.) are unique in the key takeaway they want to convey. Finalists, which can be fiction or nonfiction, address seeking and achieving peace in a variety of contexts, from war and politics to cultural, family and interpersonal conflict.

What we (Roesch Library) do? 

UD is a sponsor of the program, and members of the UD community serve on the advisory board and as adjudicators. The books also support several academic programs at UD including human rights studies, law, women's and gender studies and others. The Roesch Library is dedicated to consistently adding the winning books to its  collection every year. It is important to have these books accessible for the campus community to learn and hopefully read more about. 

From  the 2022 finalists list, I am interested in reading The Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope in an American City by Andrea Elliott and The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honoree Fanonne Jeffers. Some other reads you might be familiar with are Know My Name: A Memoir by Chanel Miller and All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. 

You’ll be able to see this collection of books within the leisure reading section in the first-floor lobby of Roesch Library. View a tour on TikTok and browse the collection online using the links below.

 Camila Sánchez-González is the 2022-23 OhioLINK Luminaries intern in the University Libraries.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Collection in Roesch Library

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