Raphael, Lev
May 19, 1954 –
Place of Birth: New York, New York
Place of Principle Residence: Okemos, MI
Biography:
The son of two Holocaust survivors, Lev Raphael grew up in New York, New York surrounded by Jewish culture and his parent’s tragic past. Raphael later described his childhood experience as one being a constant fear of saying the wrong thing and sparking a horrible memory for his parents. A self-proclaimed bookworm, Raphael devoured books as a child, partly as a way to escape into different worlds. In college he was encouraged to pursue writing, which became an outlet for him to express his knowledge and experience with the Holocaust. He published his first short story about children of Holocaust survivors in 1978. Since then Raphael has written seventeen books, many of which explore the Holocaust and its effects. He earned an M.F.A. at the University of Massachusetts 1978 and a Ph.D. at Michigan State University in 1986. After getting his doctorate, Raphael worked as an assistant professor of American Thought and Language and Michigan State for two years before retiring to be a full time writer.
Selected Works:
- Dancing on Tisha B’Av (1990)
- Edith Wharton’s Prisoners of Shame (1991)
- Winter Eyes (1992)
- Journeys & Arrivals (1996)
- The German Money (2003)
Awards:
- 1990 Lambda Literary Award
- 1978 Harvey Swados Fiction Prize
- Reed Smith Fiction Prize, Amelia Magazine
- International Quarterly’s Crossing Boundaries Prize
Critical Reception:
Raphael has won several awards for his work, including the Lambda Literary Award for Dancing on Tisha B’Av. For his book German Money Raphael received rave reviews.
“What a gift for a writer to be able to sustain unflagging, sweaty-palm suspense in a novel almost through character alone. This is what the prodigious Lev Raphael pulls off in The German Money, a mystery whose shocking denouement is so organic to the whole thing that it feels as if a boiling volcano has finally let loose.”
-The Washington Post Book World
“Raphael applies his talents as a suspense writer to this unconventional Holocaust novel… The sharpness of the family portrait and the appeal of the romantic subplot make this an engaging read.”
-Publishers Weekly
Relevance of Place to Author’s Work:
Raphael attributes his move to Michigan (to get his Ph.D. at Michigan State) as an experience that brought out his enthusiasm for his Jewish heritage. According to Raphael, in New York he was simply one of the crowd, but in Michigan, a decidedly non-Jewish environment, he felt himself more tied to his roots. Before moving to Michigan, Raphael experienced a five to six year period of frustration, being unable to get anything published. This helped him again publish his work in Jewish magazines and his book Dancing on Tisha B’Av.