“The Dayton Literary Peace Prize is one of Dayton’s great accomplishments,” said Riley, a Cleveland native and University of Dayton graduate who resides in Charleston, S.C. “It also has a great and growing reputation. There has been a lot of great work from people within the community who have kept the Dayton Literary Peace Prize going. We are also adding to our board. There are people across the country who are interested in being a part of this because of how prestigious the prize has become.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
In the pursuit of growing awareness for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, Riley, Dayton Daily News editor from 2007 to 2010, said special events were held in Atlanta and New York City last year to showcase the award’s impact and reach.
“We are taking our message and mission to other cities and we have ambitions for increasing the amount of the prize,” he said.
The fiction and nonfiction winners have traditionally received a $10,000 cash prize with the first runners-up receiving a $5,000 cash prize.
“We would like to do the work it will take to make the award larger and therefore add to its reputation and prestige,” Riley said. “We want to make the award’s reputation better known in our country and around the world. We want to continue to raise the level of prestige that the award creates for those who win it and for the community where it was born.”
He is particularly proud of the Peace Prize awarding President Jimmy Carter, a 2002 Nobel Peace Prize recipient, as the 2024 recipient of the Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. Named in honor of the U.S. diplomat who brokered the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords, the Holbrooke Award is annually given to a writer whose body of work fosters peace and global understanding. Previous recipients include Geraldine Brooks (2010), Tim O’Brien (2012), Gloria Steinem (2015), Margaret Atwood (2020/2021), Wil Haygood (2022), and Sandra Cisneros (2023) among others.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
“It was thrilling to honor Jimmy Carter, especially since we were able to do so before his death,” said Riley, who was able to know Carter personally while serving at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 2011 until his retirement in 2023. “(It was) thrilling to receive the incredibly positive reaction and support from his family and the Carter Presidential Library and have two of his grandsons come to Dayton and be a part of the celebration. They understood it was a major honor and an important moment, one the family wanted to acknowledge on the president’s behalf.”
Nicholas A. Raines, executive director of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation, is pleased to have Riley leading the board.
“Due to Kevin’s experience in (journalism), he knows how to spread the message, how to use words to promote a goal,” Raines said. “He believes the Dayton Literary Peace Prize has the capacity to become one of the nation’s foremost if not one of the world’s foremost literary awards because of the uniqueness of our mission of promoting and advancing peace through literature.”
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
As he begins his new role, Riley is excited for the future of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, especially as the 2025 NATO Parliamentary Assembly Spring Session approaches in Dayton in May in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the Dayton Peace Accords.
“When you examine its history, Dayton has always been interested in accomplishing big things (from) the Wright brothers and Charles Kettering to the Miami Conservancy District,” Riley said. “It’s the kind of place that has always had big ambition and expected a lot from itself. And what I love about the Peace Prize is the decision to say Dayton is part of the world, we had a moment on the world stage where an important event happened and we don’t want to ever forget that, and we want to honor that. We also want to be defined to the world in this way as opposed to letting circumstances or other things that are negative define a community’s reputation. Dayton is a very special place, and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize represents the best writing about peace from around the world.”
For more information about the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, visit daytonliterarypeaceprize.org.
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