Raphael began publishing short stories about children of survivors in 1978. He is the author of 17 books, including the award-winning "Dancing on Tisha B'Av," "Winter Eyes," "The German Money," and, most recently, "Secret Anniversaries of the Heart" (new and selected stories) and "Writing a Jewish Life." He is the host of Book Talk on Lansing Public Radio and also the author of the Nick Hoffman mystery series. His work has won the Harvey Swados Fiction Prize, the Reed Smith Fiction Prize and International Quarterly's Prize for Innovative Prose.
Raphael's program, Ashes to Hope: Writing the Second Generation, will be at 7 p.m. on Thursday, April 6 in the Loosemore Auditorium of the DeVos Center on Grand Valley's Pew Grand Rapids Campus. The talk is free and open to the public.
Raphael was born and raised in New York City and earned his MFA in creative writing and English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Michigan State University. Raphael taught at the university level in New York, Massachusetts and Michigan for 13 years and the first course he designed was a multi-disciplinary study of the Holocaust. He left teaching more than a decade ago to write and review full-time.
For more information contact Rob Franciosi, Department of English, (616) 331-3069 or [email protected], or visit www.levraphael.com.
