Lev Raphael (born May 19, 1954) is an American writer of

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

heritage.Emmanuel S. Nelson, ''Encyclopedia of Contemporary LGBTQ Literature of the United States''.

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, 2009. . pp. 525-526. He has published work in a variety of genres, including literary fiction, murder mysteries, fantasy, short stories, memoir and non-fiction, and is known for being one of the most prominent

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figures in contemporary

Jewish American literature Jewish American literature holds an essential place in the literary history of the United States. It encompasses traditions of writing in English, primarily, as well as in other languages, the most important of which has been Yiddish. While criti ...

.Ludger Brinker, "Lev Raphael (1954- )" in ''Contemporary Jewish-American Novelists: A Bio-critical Sourcebook'' (Joel Schatzker and Michael Taub, eds.)

Greenwood Press Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (GPG), also known as ABC-Clio/Greenwood (stylized ABC-CLIO/Greenwood), is an educational and academic publisher (middle school through university level) which is today part of ABC-Clio. Established in 1967 as Gr ...

, 1997. . He is one of the first American-Jewish writers to publish fiction about children of Holocaust survivors, beginning to do so in 1978.

Background

He was born as Reuben Lewis Steinberg in

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. His

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

survivor parents were culturally Jewish but not religious. As an adult, he changed his name to Lev as a part of reclaiming his Jewish heritage, and later adopted the surname Raphael to reaffirm his Jewishness and abandoned a

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one. He studied English at

Fordham University Fordham University () is a Private university, private Jesuit universities, Jesuit research university in New York City. Established in 1841 and named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the The Bronx, Bronx in which its origina ...

and creative writing and English at the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...

, where he won the Harvey Swados Fiction Prize awarded by Martha Foley, editor of The Best American Short Stories for his first published short story which later appeared in ''Redbook''. He received a Ph.D. in English from

Michigan State University Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the fi ...

in 1986.

Writing

His first short story collection, ''Dancing on Tisha B’Av'', won a

Lambda Literary Award Lambda Literary Awards, also known as the "Lammys", are awarded yearly by Lambda Literary to recognize the crucial role LGBTQ writers play in shaping the world. The Lammys celebrate the very best in LGBTQ literature.The awards were instituted i ...

in the Gay Debut Fiction category at the

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in 1990. He was also nominated for Lambdas in the

Gay Fiction ''Gay'' is a term that Terminology of homosexuality, primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to Gay men, ...

category at the 5th Lambda Literary Awards in 1992 for his novel ''Winter Eyes'', in the Spirituality category at the

9th Lambda Literary Awards The 9th Lambda Literary Awards were held in 1997 to honour works of LGBT literature published in 1996. Special awards Nominees and winners External links 9th Lambda Literary Awards {{Lambda Literary Awards 09 Lambda Lambda (}, ''lám(b)d ...

in 1997 for his memoir ''Journeys and Arrivals'', and in the Gay Mystery category at the

12th Lambda Literary Awards The 12th Lambda Literary Awards were held in 2000 to honour works of LGBT literature published in 1999. Nominees and winners External links 12th Lambda Literary Awards {{Lambda Literary Awards Lambda Literary Awards Lambda Lambda (}, ''lá ...

in 2000 for ''The Death of a Constant Lover''. He won the Crossing Boundaries Award from ''International Quarterly'' for "Losing My Mother", an essay contained in his memoir ''Writing a Jewish Life''. The judge was D.M. Thomas, author of ''The White Hotel.'' In 1996, Raphael began publishing a series of mystery novels centred on Nick Hoffman, an English professor and amateur detective investigating murders in the academic world. In addition to publishing ''The German Money'' and ''Secret Anniversaries of the Heart'' with Leapfrog Press, Raphael also served as the finalist judge for the 2012 Leapfrog Press Global Fiction Prize Contest, selecting Jacob White's ''Being Dead in South Carolina'' as the winner. He is a former visiting assistant professor in English and creative writing at Michigan State University.https://www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/former-msu-professor-lev-raphael-retells-university-horrors,12873, He also previously hosted a weekly radio show about books and literature on

WLNZ WLNZ (89.7 FM broadcasting, FM) is a non-commercial radio station located in Lansing, Michigan, simulcasting the regional Michigan Radio network of public radio stations. The station is owned by Lansing Community College. History Originally WLNZ ...

Lansing Lansing () is the capital of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is mostly in Ingham County, although portions of the city extend west into Eaton County and north into Clinton County. The 2020 census placed the city's population at 112,644, makin ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. He has been a book reviewer for ''

The Detroit Free Press The ''Detroit Free Press'' is the largest daily newspaper in Detroit, Michigan, US. The Sunday edition is titled the ''Sunday Free Press''. It is sometimes referred to as the Freep (reflected in the paper's web address, www.freep.com). It primari ...

'' and ''

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'', and has published both short stories and essays in a wide variety of both LGBT and Jewish publications.

Works

Novels

*''Winter Eyes'' (1992) *''Let's Get Criminal'' (1996) *''The Edith Wharton Murders'' (1997) *''The Death of a Constant Lover'' (1998) *''Little Miss Evil'' (2000) *''Burning Down the House'' (2001) *''The German Money'' (2003) *''Tropic of Murder'' (2004) *''Hot Rocks'' (2007) *''Pride and Prejudice: The Jewess and the Gentile'' (2011) *''Rosedale in Love'' (2011) *''The Vampyre of Gotham'' (2012) *''Assault with a Deadly Lie'' (2014)

Short stories

*''Dancing on Tisha B'Av'' (1990) *''Secret Anniversaries of the Heart'' (2006)

Memoir

*''Journeys & Arrivals'' (1996) *''Writing a Jewish Life'' (2006) *''My Germany'' (2009)

Non-fiction

*''Edith Wharton's Prisoners of Shame'' (1991) *''Stick Up For Yourself!'' (1992, with Gershen Kaufman and Pamela Espeland) *''Coming Out of Shame'' (1995, with Gershen Kaufman) *''Book Lust!'' (2012) *''Writer's Block is Bunk'' (2012)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raphael, Lev 1954 births Living people 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists American male short story writers American short story writers American mystery writers American fantasy writers American historical novelists American literary critics American memoirists Gay memoirists American LGBT novelists Gay Jews American gay writers Gay novelists Jewish American writers Writers from New York City Novelists from Michigan Fordham University alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Michigan State University alumni Michigan State University faculty American male essayists 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers Novelists from New York (state) Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction winners 20th-century American essayists 21st-century American essayists 21st-century American Jews