Dayton Peace Prize names 2026 winners as Ann Patchett takes Holbrooke honour
Ann Patchett will receive the 2026 Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award as part of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation announced the 2026 winners on 21 September. The prize will honour two winners and two runners-up across fiction and nonfiction, according to Publishing Perspectives.
The award takes its name and purpose from the Dayton Peace Accords that ended the Bosnian War in 1995. It honours writers whose work shows the power of the written word to foster peace, social justice and global understanding.
In fiction, the Foundation lists Sam Wachman as the 2026 winner for The Sunflower Boys. Charlotte McConaghy is listed as the fiction runner-up, meaning the second-placed finalist in that category, according to the Foundation’s awards pages.
The money is fixed and public. The fiction and nonfiction winners each receive US$10,000. Each runner-up receives US$5,000.
The four book-award writers and Patchett will be honoured in Dayton, Ohio, on 7-8 November 2026. The Foundation set out that ceremony date in its winner announcement.
What makes this stand out is the two-track shape. Fiction and nonfiction are judged side by side. Each track produces a winner and a runner-up, so four books are recognised each year alongside the Holbrooke honour.
For readers following the prize year to year, the 2025 line-up gives context. Salman Rushdie received the 2025 Holbrooke award. Kaveh Akbar won the 2025 fiction prize for Martyr!, with Priscilla Morris as runner-up for Black Butterflies, while Sunil Amrith won nonfiction for The Burning Earth: A History and Lauren Markham was runner-up for A Map of Future Ruins: On Borders and Belonging.
The Foundation had flagged the 2026 Holbrooke recipient and book-award finalists earlier, on 17 June 2026. The September announcement confirms the winners who will travel to Dayton in November.
