Laza K. Lazarević (Serbian Cyrillic: Лаза К. Лазаревић, May 1, 1851-January 10, 1891, Gregorian calendar) was a Serbian writer, psychiatrist, and neurologist. The primary interest of Lazarević throughout his short life was the science of medicine. In that field he was one of the greatest figures of his time, preeminently distinguished and useful as a doctor, teacher, and both a writer on medical issues and literary themes. To him literature was an avocation; yet he was very good at it and thought of himself as a man of letters. These facts are fundamental, as all literary critics past and present will agree, in arriving at a fair appraisal of his work.

Few writers have achieved fame with such a small opus as Laza Kuzmanović Lazarević, for it rests on nine stories, each of them, it is true, fraught with meaning and emotion to have been keenly read and widely appreciated. He is considered one of the best Serbian writers of the 19th Century. He was often referred to as the Serbian Turgeniev. During his brief life, "the less than prolific opus" enshrined him in Serbian literature as a writer who introduced the psychological story genre.