The Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation has announced the winners of its 2026 awards, given annually to books “that have led readers to a better understanding of other cultures, peoples, religions, and political points of view.”
The fiction award went to Sam Wachman for The Sunflower Boys, which follows Artem Vovchenko, a 12-year-old boy who develops romantic feelings for his best friend, Viktor; their lives are thrown into disarray after Russia invades their home country of Ukraine. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus wrote of the novel, “With its luminous depiction of all that has been lost and what remains at risk, there is no better book to read right now.”
Charlotte McConaghy was the fiction runner-up for Wild Dark Shore.
Kevin Sack won the nonfiction prize for Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church. The book, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, is the history of African Methodism, focusing on the famous South Carolina church that was rocked by racist violence in 2015. A Kirkus critic gave the book a starred review, calling it “a sobering, expertly told history of the struggle for equality as waged from pulpit and pew.”
Taking the nonfiction runner-up spot was Eve L. Ewing for Original Sins: The (Mis)education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism.
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which comes with a $10,000 cash award, was established in 2006. Previous winners include Francine Prose for A Changed Man; Edwidge Danticat for Brother, I’m Dying; Kaveh Akbar for Martyr!; and Clint Smith for How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
