NEW YORK – Acclaimed author Ann Patchett has been recognized with a prestigious accolade that highlights her global influence.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation announced on Wednesday that Patchett has been awarded this year’s Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. This honor celebrates writers whose work embodies the foundation’s mission to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding.
The award is named in memory of the esteemed diplomat Richard C. Holbrooke, known for his pivotal role in negotiating the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, which successfully ended the conflict in Bosnia. Past recipients of this award include notable figures such as former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, and acclaimed author Margaret Atwood.
Patchett, aged 62, has earned widespread recognition for her novels, including “Bel Canto,” “The Dutch House,” and “State of Wonder.” Beyond her writing, she is a passionate advocate for the literary community, owning the Parnassus bookstore in Nashville. Her dedication to supporting fellow authors earned her the PEN/Audible Literary Service Award from PEN America during a Manhattan gala last month.
In a statement released on Wednesday by the Dayton foundation, Patchett emphasized the importance of setting realistic goals to make a meaningful impact in the world.
“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.
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