Lev Raphael is one of America’s foremost Second Generation writers. Born and raised in New York City, he earned an MFA in Creative Writing at UMass/Amherst where he won the Harvey Swados Fiction Prize, judged by Martha Foley, for a story later published in Redbook. His story collection Dancing on Tisha B'Av won a 1990 Lambda Literary Award and he is also the author of two novels about survivor families, Winter Eyes and The German Money; a collection of essays and memoirs, Journeys & Arrival; a book about Edith Wharton’s life and fiction; and several co-authored books in psychology and education. His most recent titles are Secret Anniversaries of the Heart (stories) and Writing a Jewish Life (memoirs).

He has keynoted several international conferences, appeared at the Skirball in Los Angeles in a reading series with Joan Didion, and will be speaking at the 92nd Street Y in the fall. He has reviewed for NPR, The Detroit Free Press, The Washington Post, The Ft. Worth Star-Telegram, Boston Review, Forward , The Jerusalem Report and has had his own public radio book show where he interviewed Salman Rushdie, Doris Kearns Goodwin, Erica Jong and other celebrated authors.

Raphael has published dozens of stories, essays, and articles in a wide range of publications. Raphael's fiction has been anthologized in over two dozen collections in the U.S. and Britain, most recently in Who We Are: On Being (And Not Being) An American Jewish Writer, which includes work by many luminaries, and Criminal Cabbalah, a book of Jewish crime stories.

He’s the author of the Nick Hoffman mystery series set in Michigan at the fictional State University of Michigan in Michiganapolis and is the winner of the Reed Smith Fiction Prize and International Quarterly’s Prize for Innovative Writing (judge: D.M. Thomas).

Raphael has done hundreds of talks and readings in North America, Europe, and Israel at book fairs, colleges and universities, synagogues, book stores and conferences. His stories and essays are on university syllabi around the U.S. and in Canada; his fiction has been analyzed in scholarly journals and books and at MLA. Raphael holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Michigan State University, where he taught Creative Writing. His work has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. He writes full-time.