Kentucky author and farmer Wendell Berry is this year’s recipient of the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, which is given out every year by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.Berry is well-known throughout the country for his environmental advocacy, poetry and essays. And his work in all of those fields is what solidified his place as the latest winner of the Holbrooke Award. The award is given for lifetime achievement by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which honors people who use their writing to foster peace and social justice.Sharon Rab is the chair of the prize. She says Berry’s work embodies the prize’s mission of promoting peace and social justice through literary works.“And if you take a look at the various essays and the various novels and his comments, you do, you see this entire life that has come to this particular point and he was an ideal choice for us,” she said.Previous winners of the Holbrooke Award include Vietnam veteran and author Tim O’Brien, Chicago storyteller Studs Terkel, writer Barbara Kingsolver and Holocaust survivor and memoirist Elie Wiesel. Berry will accept the award in Dayton, Ohio in November.
