Author Eduardo Halfon was named the 2018 Edward Lewis Wallant Award winner at Greenberg Center for his finished novel, ‘Mourning.’ Taking place at the Mandell Jewish Community Center in West Hartford, Conn., the presentation ceremony will honor not only Halfon, but also the book’s translators, Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn on Monday, Apr. 15 at 7 p.m. 

The Wallant Award is known as one of the oldest and most prestigious Jewish literary awards in the U.S. In 1963, the award was established by Dr. and Mrs. Irving Waltman of West Hartford, which honors the memory of the late Edward Lewis Wallant, the author of The Pawnbroker. 

The Wallant Award is traditionally presented to a Jewish writer; whose work of published fiction consists of American-Jew significance. This year, the award will be given to Halfon for his written experience and roots in Jewish Poland. Francine Prose, a former Wallant Award winner, interprets Halfon’s novel, ‘Mourning’ as “a feat of literacy acrobatics” according to New York Review of Books. The novel itself is also viewed as a subtle reflection on power of family mythology, silence and grief. 

Halfon moved to the United States at the age of ten and was originally born in Guatemala City. By attending school in South Florida, Halfon studied industrial engineering at North Carolina State University. Afterwards, he ended up returning to Guatemala to teach eight years of literature at Universidad Francisco Marroquin. 

“As always, I am greatful and humbled when one of my books receives a prize, but to be given the Edward Lewis Wallant Awards feels like I’m being honored by the very men and women I write about,” says Halfon. 

The additional honorees of this year’s Wallant Award included Lisa Dillman and Daniel Hahn who have translated many other novels and works in addition to Halfon’s ‘Mourning.’ Dillman won the Best Translated Book Award in 2016 for the collaborated work of ‘Signs Preceding the End of the World’ by Yuri Herrera. Hahn is known as a writer, editor, researcher and translator who is currently on the board of trustees of the Society of Authors. 

For more additional information on the Edward Lewis Wallant Award and its past recipents, please visit the award webpage on the University website. 
In order to register for the award ceremony, please contact Susan Gottlieb at the Greenberg Center or email at [email protected].