Vietnam War veteran Tim O’Brien has won the 2012 Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. This $10,000 honorarium is awarded by the organizers behind the Dayton Literary Peace Prize.

During the ceremony, the National Book Award-winning novelist fought back tears as he accepted his award. Follow this link to view a video with O’Brien’s full speech. Last year, The Poisonwood Bible author Barbara Kingsolver won this prize.

Here’s more from the release: “‘The Dayton Literary Peace 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,’ said O’Brien. ‘It is a great, great honor to have been chosen as a recipient of the Richard C. Holbrooke Award. Over what has been a long career, this award means more to me than any other — by far.’”

As you enjoy the weekend, check out the video embedded above and learn how to make a cover for your Amazon Kindle (or other eReader)–from scratch. If you want more weekend reading, here are our favorite headlines from the week.

We learned how to use Google TV ads to promote your book (cheaply!) on television.

Novelist Tim O’Brien gave us writing tips and reflected on the 20th anniversary of The Things They Carried.

While President Barack Obama used an indie bookstore in Iowa to illustrate his health care plan, the Washington Post and PublicAffairs decided to rush a new book about the health insurance reform bill.

A Gossip Girl producer landed a book deal for a YA trilogy. In semi-related news, two Jersey Shore castmates also cut a book deal.

Following controversial reviews of a Michael Lewis bestseller, readers debated Amazon’s customer reviews policy.

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In a new partnership with the Pen American Center, the Anchor Books imprint announced that the annual “O. Henry Prize Stories” anthology as the “PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories.”

The collection has been published since 1919. This year’s contest will be judged by A. S. Byatt, Anthony Doerr, and Tim O’Brien, culling winners from thousands of short stories.

Here’s more from the release: “The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories 2009 is studded with great writers such as Junot Diaz, Nadine Gordimer, Ha Jin, and Paul Theroux, as well as new voices. The winning stories feature locales as diverse as post-war Vietnam, a retirement community in Cape Town, South Africa, an Egyptian desert village, and a permanently darkened New York City.” (Via NYT)