Acclaimed writer Salman Rushdie will receive the top honor from the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for 2025, the 20th anniversary of the awards.
The literary prizes aim to celebrate writers whose work fosters peace, social justice and global understanding.
Rushdie will receive the 2025 Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award.
“Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar, will receive the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Fiction, and “The Burning Earth: A History,” by Sunil Amrith, will receive the Dayton Literary Peace Prize for Nonfiction.
The fiction and nonfiction winners each receive $10,000, and the fiction and nonfiction runners-up each receive a $5,000 cash prize.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation will honor this year’s winners and runners-up at an awards ceremony in Dayton scheduled for the weekend of Nov. 8. On that Saturday, Rushdie will appear in conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist David S. Rohde; and on Sunday, Joshua Carter — grandson of the late President Jimmy Carter and last year’s Holbrooke Award recipient — will present the citation at the Dayton Awards Gala.
“In this time of war abroad and turmoil at home, it feels more important than ever to speak of peace,” said Rushdie, author of 22 works of fiction and nonfiction, in a news release. “I’m grateful for this opportunity to celebrate the beauty and urgent necessity of peace, and to remember that art is always in the service of that cause.”
On the decision to honor Rushdie with the Holbrooke Award, Nicholas A. Raines, executive director of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, said Rushdie’s “persistent and courageous efforts” to guide and equip readers has never been more important.
“Mr. Rushdie’s example of resilience and forgiveness, even in the face of violence, makes him a beacon of light within our ranks. His voice is indispensable to all who fight for peace,” Raines said in a news release.
The foundation describes Rushdie as a visionary storyteller whose “unwavering support for free expression has helped shape global conversations.”
See the full list of winners and finalists on the Dayton Literary Peace Prize website.