Irish novelist wins Ohio literary peace award

CINCINNATI — An Irish novelist, journalist and essayist has been named the winner of a lifetime achievement award that celebrates the power of literature to foster peace, social justice and global understanding.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize organizers tell The Associated Press that Colm Toibin will receive this year’s Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. It’s named for the late U.S. diplomat who brokered the 1995 Bosnia peace accords reached in Ohio.

Toibin’s wide range of work has drawn from his native Ireland, his life as a gay man and his travels as an international journalist.

Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation co-chair Sharon Rab says Toibin’s writings show shared humanity and the possibilities of reconciliation or simply of understanding.