Edison Brings Peace Week Events to Campus

Josh Weil

Held in conjunction with the Dayton Literary Peace Prize (DLPP), Edison State Community College’s English and Communications faculty will be hosting a week of peace-focused events beginning October 26. All Peace Week events will be held at Edison’s Piqua Campus and are free and open to the community. The week’s events include:

• Monday, October 26: The Diversity Discussion Group sponsored by the English Department will meet to discuss select works of this year’s Dayton Literary Peace Prize Lifetime Achievement winner Gloria Steinem at 12:15 p.m. in the Library’s Early Childhood Resource Center. William Loudermilk, Beka Lindeman, and Librarian Katherine Magner will host this discussion.
• Monday, October 26: A reading of selections from this year’s winning DLPP works at 1:45 p.m. in room 456.
• Tuesday, October 27: A special viewing and discussion of the 2014 blockbuster hit American Sniper will be held at 7:00 p.m. in the Robinson Theatre. William Loudermilk and Steve Marlowe will host a discussion of the movie following the viewing.
• Wednesday, October 28: Ohio poet Fred McLeod will share his work related to the theme of peace at 1:30 p.m. in room 456.
•  Friday, October 30: All entries for this year’s English Department sponsored writing contest are due by 12:00 p.m. via email to William Loudermilk at wloudermilk@edisonohio.edu.
• Monday, November 2: Keynote guest speaker and a recipient of the 2015 DLPP, Josh Weil will speak about his winning debut novel, “The Great Glass Sea,” which tells the epic story of twin brothers who have been inseparable since childhood, living on their uncle’s farm. The novel chronicles love, loss, and light in an all-to-real alternate near future Russia. Weil’s debut novel has been named a New York Times Editor’s Choice and Powell’s Indispensable Selection. In addition to winning the DLPP and the GrubStreet National Book Prize, Weil’s book has been short-listed for The Center for Fiction’s Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize and the Library of Virginia’s Literary Award in Fiction and was long-listed for VCU Cabell Award. Weil also wrote the award-winning book, “The New Valley” and has had other fiction writing appear in Granta, Esquire, Tin House, and One Story. He has written non-fiction for The New York Times, The Sun, Poets & Writers, and Time.com. Weil will speak at 12:15 p.m. in the Robinson Theater.
• During the week, the “peace walk” will be on display near the Myers Vacarro Art Gallery and feature a graffiti wall, selfie station, and a series of quotations about peace.

Inspired by the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords that ended the war in Bosnia, the DLPP is the only international literary peace prize awarded in the United States. The Prize celebrates the power of literature to promote peace, social justice, and global understanding. The 2015 DLPP Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, November 1 at the Benjamin J. Shuster Center in Dayton. This is a sold out event.

For more information regarding Peace Week, contact William Loudermilk at wloudermilk@edisonohio.edu.