Colm Toibin Winner Of Holbrooke Award

An Irish novelist, journalist and essayist has been named the winner of a lifetime achievement award celebrating the power of literature to foster peace, social justice and global understanding. Dayton Literary Peace Prize organizers say Colm Toibin will receive this year's Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award, named for the late U.S. diplomat who brokered the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia.  Toibin's wide range of work has drawn from his native Ireland, his life as a gay man and his travels as an international journalist. Organizers say his writings show shared humanity and the possibilities of reconciliation or simply of understanding. Previous winners include Studs Terkel, Taylor Branch, Gloria Steinem, and Elie Wiesel.