Hi. I’m Avram Lavinsky, and I write stories, sometimes for young people, sometimes for adults.
I’m pretty new to the author scene, which is surprising considering how long I’ve thought about it. If you don’t want to hear that story from the beginning, you can skip to my publishing credits below.
I decided I wanted to write at around age six. I remember the evening vividly. I got out of bed, walked down the stairs in my footsy pajamas, and asked my dad, “If I become a writer, would you read my books?”
“Yes. Yes, Avram, if you become a writer, I will definitely read your books.”
I marched back upstairs and tried to sleep but ended up walking back down to my dad a minute later.
“Dad, If I become a musician, will you come hear me play?”
My dad probably feared a very long night at that point. “Yes, whatever you choose, I’ll definitely check it out. Now, please go to sleep.”
Most of my childhood friends probably thought of me as a music nerd, but I wrote my first mystery at age 11. My home room teacher gave us an assignment to write a three-paragraph story and read it in front of the class. I turned in about seven thousand words of Sherlock Holmes fan fiction, my first and only experience with overwriting. It was my first and only experience with stage fright too. Speaking in front of the class that long made me so woozy that I had to give up at the end of the second scene to go puke in the boys’ room.
It didn’t take me too many years after that to figure out that the music thing had to happen first, especially when a few talented friends wanted to make it happen with me. In the end, I had just enough success to be able to meet and work with some other musicians who had phenomenal success. I met some great people who remain my closest friends to this day.
Feeding myself while playing out all the time proved harder. I worked a wide variety of jobs including librarian’s assistant, nanny, gas station attendant, locker room attendant, telesurvey administrator, hay crew member, compost trucker, piano tuner, string arranger, home construction worker, playground construction worker, busboy, pie baker, chauffeur, physical therapist, and English teacher.
As you might guess, I wrote many songs and got along well with other songwriters. As you might also guess, I became particularly fond of songs that told a story. You can find a handful of the material my friends and I wrote on my YouTube channel.
So, somewhere between making music and becoming a dad, I only got around to the writer part of that original plan in earnest five or six years ago. Like music, it takes time. And, like music, it takes a community. Happily, with a lot of help, I’ve managed to complete a few novels and get a handful of short stories published.
Avram Lavinsky has placed in the Writers of the Future contest and Ruminate Magazine’s VanderMey Prize competition. Last year, he was shortlisted for the Brooklyn Non-Fiction Prize and the Al Blanchard Award for New England’s best crime story.
His work has appeared in or has been accepted to appear in Boston Literary Magazine, the San Antonio Review, Mystery Tribune, Savage Planets, Deadly Nightshade: Best New England Crime Stories 2022, Shotgun Honey, and The Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2023.
He’s even earned starred reviews from the nation’s toughest critics, his three teenage sons, although not often.
