APNewsBreak: Vietnam veteran, author Tim O’Brien wins Dayton Literary Peace Prize award [View all]

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By Associated Press, Updated: Wednesday, August 1, 8:37

CINCINNATI — Vietnam veteran and author Tim O’Brien, whose writings have shown war and its long-term impacts through a regular soldier’s eyes, on Wednesday was named the winner of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s lifetime achievement award.

O’Brien wrote about his Vietnam experience as an Army infantryman in the 1973 memoir: “If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home.” Subsequent works have combined fiction with real details from his service.

The Dayton honor was renamed last year the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, for the late, longtime U.S. diplomat who brokered the 1995 Dayton peace accords on Bosnia. The Dayton awards are meant to recognize the power of literature in promoting peace and global understanding, and the achievement award goes to a writer for body of work. Annual fiction and nonfiction awards will be announced later this year. Organizers released the award announcement first to The Associated Press.

O’Brien won a National Book Award for Fiction in 1979 for “Going After Cacciato,” and among his other books are “Northern Lights” and “In the Lake of the Woods.” His 1990 story collection “The Things They Carried” earned recognition including the National Magazine Award for the title story.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/apnewsbreak-vietnam-veteran-author-tim-obrien-wins-dayton-literary-peace-prize-award/2012/08/01/gJQA503yOX_story.html

Minnesota writer wins lifetime achievement award
Article by: LAURIE HERTZEL , Star Tribune Updated: August 1, 2012 - 11:05 AM

The annual Dayton Literary Peace Prize recognizes his work illuminating soldiers' experiences in the Vietnam War.

Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" is a haunting collection of stories about soldiers in Vietnam and was a finalist for the Pultizer Prize. "Going After Cacciato," O'Brien's 1978 novel about a soldier who decides to walk away from the war -- all the way to Paris -- won the National Book Award. "If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home" was called the single greatest work to come out of the Vietnam War.

War and its endless, eternal ramifications has been a constant theme in the work of O'Brien, a native of Austin, Minn. And for that body of work he was awarded Wednesday the Dayton Literary Peace Prize's annual lifetime achievement award.

The prize "promotes the cause of peace by helping people understand the ugly realities of war on a deep, personal level, which is exactly what I strive to do in my work," O'Brien said in a prepared statement. "Over what has been a long career, this award means more to me than any other -- by far."

O'Brien, 65, now lives and teaches in Texas. He set several of his books in Minnesota -- "Northern Lights," and "In the Lake of the Woods" -- but always the specter of Vietnam and war was deeply present.

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http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/164596686.html?refer=y

Congratulations to Tim O'Brien!