Lev Raphael was educated at Fordham University and received his M.F.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Michigan State University, where he has taught as an assistant professor of American Thought and Language.

With Gershen Kaufman, he codeveloped and cotaught the program, “Affect and Self-Esteem,” on which the books Dynamics of Power and Stick Up for Yourself! are based. Book critic for National Public Radio’s “The Todd Mundt Show” and “Mysteries” columnist for The Detroit Free Press, he is the author of three Nick Hoffman mysteries, most recently The Death of a Constant Lover (New York: Walker & Co., 1999).