Now the good part starts. Lets begin to talk about something before we start the id like to talk about something thats inspiration on and i have these stories every year and this is one thats recent. So you know i just ran into drew whittenburg whos here and he always brings me these bright Young Students from tipp city. And its such a pleasure to meet them. Theyre so inspiring to be here. And it reminded me of a story when i when devil grove first came out about ten years ago, i got a letter or email from a young law student at northwestern, and she wrote me this beautiful. She said, gilbert, after reading your book, ive decided what i want to do. I want to be a public defender in the spirit of, you know, Thurgood Marshall. And i said, thats beautiful and stayed in touch with her a little bit. And she said she moved down to florida. She got a as a public defender in west palm beach. Her name was claire. And, you know, she would keep me updated. Her progress and the cases that she was on and a of years later, she started to really rise up in the office and she said, you know what, i want to give you an award. Its called the gideon. And its for people whose. You know, work has for indigent clients. And were going to give it to you. Theres been a couple of authors that have gotten it. Would you like to come down and youll meet with our staff get the award and well have a conversation with you about this kind of work . I said, sure. I went down a few months ago and did a beautiful interview with claire. We inspire the of the office and after the the interview with conversation she said to me northwestern said that they want to put my name to be a clerk for justice carter, angie brown, jackson and she goes, i what should i write in the cover letter. Im just asking you for advice. And i said i thought the cover letter that you wrote me was one of the most beautiful letters being inspired to do this kind of work and how Thurgood Marshall meant so to you and how you wanted to go on and follow in those footsteps. I said, why dont you just write your heart the kind of things you wrote me . Its a long shot right. Three weeks later, i got an email. Gilbert got the clerkship. So she said, going to invite you down. Youre going to meet justice. You got to bring some books. We can do some signings. Turned out Justice Jackson was, a big fan of Thurgood Marshall and devlin, the grove. So there you have it. Well, yeah more inspiration, right. Lets move on to the meat. This ceremony, jordan writer khan writes narrative features about sports, culture and National International affairs. He has worked at grantland and espn the magazine. Hes also for New York Times, sports illustrated, a number of other outlets. Jordan is a two time finalist for the livingston for the defender. Manute bundles manute bol journey from sudan, the nba and back again and his story a death in valdosta. His podcast, sonic boom, was named one of the top 50 podcasts of 2019 by the atlantic and was nominated for a webby award. His piece, the end of the hoop dream, was named among the top ten stories of 2015 by long form dawg jordan as on the protest movement in hong kong. The refugee experience on the Turkish Border and the aftermath civil war in the ivory coast and the Independence Movement in what is now sudan. Here in the states, he has written features about survivors of the pulse nightclub shooting and about the Police Killings of tamir rice and breonna. He is a graduate of the Uc Berkeley Graduate School of journalism and lee university. Jordan is also the 2021 dayton literary peace prize runner up in nonfiction for the road from rockwall. Please welcome Jordan Ritter conn. This theres a word that comes up several times in Andrea Elliotts remarkable, necessary and gorgeous invisible child. A word that struck me every time i encountered it. There were just presents. Andrea describes the presence mice and roaches in brooklyn homeless shelter. She the towering presence. A tough and loving Public School named miss holmes. When writing about one father who chooses to be there in his childrens lives. And one father who does not. Andrea writes, quote, nothing beats being present. That line. Nothing beats being present. Came up for me over and over when thinking about andreas work on this book. The book tells the story of dasani, a young girl from brooklyn over the course of nearly a decade of her life. Dasani is passionate to curious and fiercely, fiercely to the people she loves. Shes poor. When we meet her, shes living with members of her family in a shelter. Shes black navigating a country built on the exploitation of her ancestors, her family and herself. Andrea writes, quote she sees out into a world rarely sees her. Dasani is the daughter of a mother and a step and a stepfather who love her deeply. But her struggle with addiction and poverty. Shes the big sister of several siblings who she often sometimes out on the experience to be a child herself within diligence and care. Andrea follows dasani and her family as they travel along the margins of. American society. She chronicles their moments of pain. Of grief. Hunger alongside their triumphs. And their moments of joy. She draws her reporting from access to government records, from notes by teachers and therapies, from facebook, messages sent between dasani and her sister, from dasani diary and many, many hours with dasani and her family in homes and in homeless shelters, in classrooms and trains and, busses on the streets of several york boroughs and the offices, government officials. What emerges is . A portrait of a family that grasps for each other when so many forces pull them apart. A portrait of a girl aside by so many whose job is to support her. But by her own determination often. And by the love people she encounters. Teachers in brooklyn and pennsylvania, street performer and fitness guru named jayant and in critical moments andre herself. Invisible is a staggering feat of reporting and an elegant and moving piece of writing. But as much as it is a remarkable example, all of the single most important a journalist can do to show up, to be curious about the lives of those around us and the systems that shape us all to be present. It is my tremendous honor to introduce as the 2022 runner up for the dayton literary peace in nonfiction, andre elliot. Thank you. Its an incredible honor to be with you all tonight and to be sharing this stage with remarkable and astonishing talent. Clint your book will stay with me for the rest of my days. Im humbled, if not a little nervous, to be the first of this years authors speak tonight. When i expressed this to of your organizers, she said, oh, this crowd is excited to have you all here, that you could just get up and read the phone book and it would be fine. I should also that in an attempt at being helpful, one of your previous winners recommended that i might avoid talking about peace because and i quote the subject has by now been exhausted. Well im not going to read the full book and. I am going to talk about peace because ive never been good at taking direction direction. When i think about word peace, my mind travels back in time to my first weeks with coates, the homeless child at the center of my. What i noticed in those first weeks was that she said goodbye at end of a phone call or a visit. She was only 11 years old, but her childhood had been marked by more loss, more sorrow, more departures than adults see in a lifetime. So rather than say goodbye, she opted for the word that her parents had taught her to say, which was peace . It was not just a word, but an in the religious teachings they followed that stood for properly educating children everywhere. Peace. They would say also by way of. And i learned to say it back. Peace until that word became the bookends of every encounter i had with them. Peace. When we saw each other and peace when we parted. Even if the things i had witnessed in the time in between were the opposite peace from small to major events that made plain how deep racism runs in america. To say word peace after losing your children to a system that polices black and brown families and routinely separates them without due process. To write the word peace at the end of a compelling you have filed in the brooklyn homeless shelter where Staff Members have just tossed your mothers urn into garbage. Never to be found again. To end the phone call with peace from Rikers Island jail as dishonest brother did with me just a few days ago from a place that can only be described as a disaster where detainees routinely go without food or medical care. This year alone, 18 inmates have in new york citys jails at rikers. Dishonest brother recently spent in solitary confinement after Corrections Officers broke his ribs piece. He said gently on the phone. I think of dishonest families devotion to this word as the ultimate example of peace as action. We tend to think of peace as a positive action, a destination, an ideal of being rather than as something that is still forming something is alive and molten and worthy of pursuit, even as it eludes us. So tonight i want to thank dasani and her family for me that i want thank them for daring to trust in me and for giving me the precious gift of their time. I want to know that to follow their lives has forever changed mine. And i want you all to know that the story the story of Dasani Coates is americas story. It is my greatest hope. That invisible child will open eyes to how poverty, Structural Racism play out on ground, and that to see the life of this one brave child from her deepest burdens, her greatest hopes is to see our nation in all its dimensions. Ill close with the word taught me to say peace. Its like its going to be one of those nights. Its beautiful. Susan Susan Southard first book, nagasaki life after nuclear war, is the recipient of the dayton literary peace prize and j. Anthony lucas book prize sponsored by the Columbia School of journalism and universitys Nieman Foundation for. Journalism. Nagasaki was also named a best book of the year. The Washington Posts the economist, Kirkus Reviews and the american association. Nagasaki has also been published in england, spain, denmark, china, taiwan and japan. And excerpts of the book have appeared in journals around the world. Susans work has also appeared in the New York Times. The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times and politico, among others. She holds an mfa in creative writing from antioch university, los angeles and was a nonfiction fellow at the Norman Mailer center in provincetown, massachusetts susan has spoken before United Nations and continues to at International Disarmament conferences universities and Public Forums around the United States and abroad. She teaches graduate level nonfiction seminars and directed a three year Creative Writing Program at a federal prison for women outside phenix. Susan was founder and artistic director of the phenix essential theater, serving communities across the southwest for 32 years. Susan the 2016 dayton literary peace prize winner nonfiction for nagasaki life after nuclear war. Please welcome susan. Southern southern. Thank you, gilbert and good evening, everyone. Its such great pleasure and honor to be with you tonight. So it is my great honor to introduce to you clint smith author of how the word is passed. A book in which clinton takes to seven sites that have deep, profound roots in and different ways of remembering the institution of slavery in the United States. With clint, we go to southern slave plantations, cemeteries, one for 30,000 confederate soldiers and one for 2200 enslaved children killed over a period of 40 years. In the early to. Mid 1800s, we go to angola prison, which was built on the property of a former slave plantation and today has a population is 75 black two manhattan for a walking of both slave trading and the underground railroad there to galveston island where on june 19th, 1865 Union GeneralGordon Granger announced to the of texas that all slaves are free free and to goree off the coast of senegal, where african men, women and children were forced onto slave ships to begin their journey through the Middle Passage of all of these places are critical to u. S. History. But its clints of past and present that is visionary because we can see, smell, taste and feel for each place, both through his personal experience and reflections during his visits his interviews with staff and guides and his informal conversations with visitors to see how they give meaning to these sites and in the past, through haunting about the enslaved adults and who lived in these places, thats how the is passed allows us to see the historical and contemporary realities his of the political legal, educational and psychological of White Supremacy upon our our upon which our country was founded and built. It us to feel some of the countless terrifying realities of labor, family separation and medical experimentation, rape, torture and, murder all birthed and by White Supremacy. This book us to better understand myths lies minimized nations justifications and silencing that allowed supremacy to flourish both during the centuries of slavery and in the 157 years since slavery abolished in our constitution how the word is passed invites us to continue to interrogate what weve been taught to hold the horrific truths our history, and to confront again and again the complex question of accountability. My life is already transformed by this. On the drive here, my father through north carolina, virginia, west virginia, ohio, i could no longer for granted the superficial views of the land and people all around. How did and how does slavery and continuing White Supremacy play out in all of our lives . In every square mile of this nation, clint ends his book with an intimate essay about his grandparents and his great and great great grandparents that illuminates with insight and love how close the history of slavery and its aftermath is to of us alive today. In one of my favorite passages, after listening to his grandparents recall some of their early experience excuse me, early experiences, segregation and violence, clint writes, while i knew about about how smoke of slavery and jim crow had billowed over their lives i did not know this specific shapes of their silhouettes. I did not know how either of them had walked through this country without turning into ash. Please me in welcoming to the stage are 2022 dayton literary peace prize in nonfiction clint smith clint smith. Hows everyone doing . Thank you all so much for being here. Thank you. This remarkable award. I want to thank my editor, vanessa mobley, whose vision helped bring this this project to fruition. I want to thank my agent whos here, aliya, who is a relentless advocate of my work. I want to thank my kids, or those of you who were here last night know that im known less as dad, more as brachiosaurus number one. I love. I love you more than the moon. The in the sky. I want to thank my wife, ariel who couldnt be here . Because we have two little brachiosaurus at home. Thank you, sharon. And thank you, nick. And the judges in this entire literary peace prize community for this honor. Ive been sitting here this evening watching the slideshow, which is both remarkable and incredibly intimidating, to be in the presence of of writers both here with me tonight and to think about lineage of writers and artists, Truth Tellers and storytellers who who have been a part of this community. This brilliant, remarkable, special community you all have built. Ive been thinking a lot about some different people from the book over the course of the last two days and thinking a lot. North henderson from angola. For those of you who arent familiar, angola, the largest maximum security prison in the country. Its 18,000 acres wide, bigger than the island of manhattan. Its a place where 75 of the people held there are black men. Over 70 of them are serving life sentences. And it was built on top of a former plantation. And when i tell people all the time and alluded to last night, is that if you were to go to germany and you had the largest, maximum security in germany, and it was built top of a former concentration camp in which the people held there were disproportionate you wish that place would quite rightfully be a global emblem of antisemitism. It will be abhorrent. It will be disgusting. We would never a place like that to exist because it would so run counter to all our moral and ethical sensibilities. And here in the United States, we have the largest, maximum security prison in the country where the vast majority of people are black men serving life sentences of whom were sentenced as children. United states is the only country in the world sentences children to life without the possibility of parole, many of whom were sentenced by nonunanimous, which has since been rendered in the constitution by the Supreme Court of the United States for. Being a vestige of White Supremacy. And i think about what are the specific contours of antiblackness in this country that allow a prison on top to exist on top of a former constant or two on t