Ann Patchett’s next accolade: A peace prize rooted in the Dayton Accords legacy

NEW YORK (AP) — Ann Patchett's latest honor has an international scope.

The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation announced Wednesday that Patchett is this year's recipient of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award for “a writer whose body of work reflects the Prize’s mission of fostering peace, social justice, and global understanding.”

The award is named for the late diplomat who served under President Bill Clinton among others and is credited with helping to broker the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia. Previous winners include former President Jimmy Carter,Elie Wiesel and Margaret Atwood.

Patchett, 62, is known for such novels as “Bel Canto,” “The Dutch House” and “State of Wonder.” She also owns the Nashville-based bookstore Parnassus and advocates often for fellow writers, her efforts leading PEN America to present her its PEN/Audible Literary Service Award at a gala last month in Manhattan.

In a statement issued Wednesday through the Dayton foundation, Patchett advised setting realistic goals for how to make meaningful contributions.

“If you wait to find a way to bring peace to the world there’s a good chance that nothing will be accomplished,” she said. “Instead, I recommend bringing about peace in any small way that is available to you. Live as peacefully and as generously as possible. Invite others to stand with you or, better yet, go and stand with them.”

The foundation also announced that Amanda Knox’s memoir “Free: My Search for Meaning” is among the 12 finalists for Dayton Literary Peace Prize awards for fiction and nonfiction from 2025 that demonstrate “the power of the written word to foster peace.” Knox's book recounts her life after being imprisoned in Italy on murder charges and eventually being exonerated.

Nonfiction contenders besides “Free” include Danielle Leavitt's Ukraine chronicle “By the Second Spring,” Jack Fairweather's “The Prosecutor: One Man's Battle to Bring Nazis to Justice” and Eve L. Ewing's “Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.” Gish Jen's “Bad Bad Girl,” Karen Russell's “The Antidote” and Sam Wachman's “The Sunflower Boys” are among the fiction finalists.

Winners, to be announced in September, each receive $10,000.