Lev Raphael

Lev Raphael (born May 19, 1954) is an American writer of Jewish heritage. He has published work in a variety of genres, including literary fiction, murder mysteries, fantasy, short stories, memoir and non-fiction, He is one of the first American-Jewish writers to publish fiction about children of Holocaust survivors, beginning to do so in 1978.

Early life and education He was born as Reuben Lewis Steinberg in New York City. He was also nominated for Lambdas in the Gay Fiction category at the 5th Lambda Literary Awards in 1992 for his novel Winter Eyes, in the Spirituality category at the 9th Lambda Literary Awards in 1997 for his memoir Journeys and Arrivals, and in the Gay Mystery category at the 12th Lambda Literary Awards 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. He also previously hosted a weekly radio show about books and literature on WLNZ in Lansing, Michigan. He has been a book reviewer for The Detroit Free Press and The Washington Post, and has published both short stories and essays in a wide variety of both LGBT and Jewish publications. Since 2021, he has published close to 100 personal essays and short stories in a wide range of literary magazines online and in print.

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) State University of Murder (2019) Department of Death (2021)

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)