Edward Lewis Wallant Award

The Edward Lewis Wallant Award is one of the oldest and most distinguished Jewish literary prizes in the United States. Established in 1963 at the University of Hartford by Dr. and Mrs. Irving Waltman of West Hartford, Connecticut, the award honors the memory of novelist Edward Lewis Wallant (1926–1962), author of The Human Season and The Pawnbroker — the latter adapted into a landmark film that was among the first to depict the inside of a Nazi concentration camp on screen.

Presented annually, the award recognizes a writer — preferably one not yet widely recognized — whose published work of fiction is judged to hold significance for American Jewish history and culture. A panel of four literary critics serves as judges, seeking out authors whose work shares a kinship with Wallant's own: fiction marked by moral seriousness, human intimacy, and insight into the Jewish American experience.