Michael Hofmann

Michael Hofmann FRSL (born 25 August 1957) is a German-born poet, translator, and critic. The Guardian has described him as "arguably the world's most influential translator of German into English".^[1]

For other people named Michael Hofmann, see Michael Hofmann (disambiguation).

Michael Hofmann FRSL
Born	(1957-08-25) 25 August 1957 (age 67) Freiburg, Germany
Occupation	Poet, translator
Genre	Criticism, poetry, translation

Biography

Hofmann was born in Freiburg into a family with a literary tradition. His father was the German novelist Gert Hofmann. His maternal grandfather edited the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.^[2] Hofmann's family first moved to Bristol in 1961, and later to Edinburgh. He was educated at Winchester College,^[3] and then studied English Literature and Classics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1979.^[4][5] For the next four years, he pursued postgraduate study at the University of Regensburg and Trinity College, Cambridge.^[2]

In 1983, Hofmann started working as a freelance writer, translator, and literary critic.^[6] He has since gone on to hold visiting professorships at the University of Michigan, Rutgers University, the New School University, Barnard College, and Columbia University. He was first a visitor to the University of Florida in 1990, joined the faculty in 1994, and became full-time in 2009. He has been teaching poetry and translation workshops.^[7]

In 2008, Hofmann was Poet-in-Residence in the state of Queensland in Australia.^[8]

Hofmann has two sons, Max (1991) and Jakob (1993).^{[citation needed]} He splits his time between Hamburg and Gainesville, Florida.^[1]

Honours

Hofmann received the Cholmondeley Award in 1984 for Nights in the Iron Hotel^[9] and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize in 1988 for Acrimony.^[10] The same year, he also received the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of Patrick Süskind's Der Kontrabaß (The Double Bass).^[11] In 1993 he received the Schlegel-Tieck Prize again for his translation of Wolfgang Koeppen's Death in Rome.^[11]

Hofmann was awarded the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize in 1995 for the translation of his father's novel The Film Explainer,^[2] and nominated again in 2003 for his translation of Peter Stephan Jungk's The Snowflake Constant.^[12] In 1997 he received the Arts Council Writer's Award for his collection of poems Approximately Nowhere,^[2] and the following year he received the International Dublin Literary Award for his translation of Herta Müller's novel The Land of Green Plums.^[2]

In 1999, Hofmann was awarded the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize for his translation of Joseph Roth's The String of Pearls.^[13] In 2000, Hofmann was selected as the recipient of the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his translation of Joseph Roth's novel Rebellion (Die Rebellion).^[14] In 2003 he received another Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of his father's Luck,^[11] and in 2004 he was awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for his translation of Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel.^[15] In 2005 Hofmann received his fourth Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of Gerd Ledig's The Stalin Organ.^[11] Hofmann served as a judge for the Griffin Poetry Prize in 2002, and in 2006 Hofmann made the Griffin's international shortlist for his translation of Durs Grünbein's Ashes for Breakfast.^[16]

Hoffman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.^[17]

His translation of Jenny Erpenbeck's novel Kairos won them the International Booker Prize in 2024, the first occasion on which the prize was won by either a German writer or a male translator.^[18]

Critical writing

Maria Tumarkin describes Hofmann's review writing as "masterful" and "convention-eviscerating".^[19] Philip Oltermann remarks on the "savagery" with which Hofmann "can wield a hatchet", stating (with reference to Hofmann's antipathy towards Stefan Zweig) that: "Like a Soho drunk stumbling into the National Portrait Gallery in search of a good scrap, Hofmann has battered posthumous reputations with the same glee as those of the living."^[1]

Selected bibliography

Author

• Nights in the Iron Hotel. London: Faber and Faber. 1984. ISBN 978-0-571-13116-7.
• Acrimony. London: Faber and Faber. 1986. ISBN 978-0-571-14528-7.
• Corona, Corona. London: Faber and Faber. 1993. ISBN 978-0-571-17052-4.
• Approximately Nowhere: poems. London: Faber and Faber. 1999. ISBN 978-0-571-19524-4.
• Behind the Lines: Pieces on Writing and Pictures. London: Faber and Faber. 2002. ISBN 978-0-571-19523-7.
• Where Have You Been?: Selected Essays. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2014. ISBN 978-0-374-25996-9.
• One Lark, One Horse. London: Faber and Faber. 2018. ISBN 978-0-571-342297.
• Messing About in Boats. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2021.

Translator

• Tucholsky, Kurt (1985). Castle Gripsholm: A Summer Story. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Chatto and Windus. ISBN 978-0-7011-2993-4.
• Wenders, Wim (1989). Emotion Pictures: Reflections on the Cinema. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-15272-8.
• Wenders, Wim (1992). The Logic of Images: Essays and Conversations. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-16517-9.
• Koeppen, Wolfgang (1992). Death in Rome. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-589-4.
• Roth, Joseph (1995). The String of Pearls. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-087-5.
• Hofmann, Gert (1995). The Film Explainer. Translated by Michael Hofmann. Evanston: Northwestern University Press. ISBN 978-0-8101-1293-3.
• Süskind, Patrick (1997). The Double Bass. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7011-2993-4.
• Süskind, Patrick (13 October 2023). The Story of Mr Sommer. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Fox, Finch & Tepper. ISBN 978-0-99-304672-8.
• Kafka, Franz (1997). The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika). Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-140-18621-5.
• Müller, Herta (1998). The Land of Green Plums. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-260-2.
• Roth, Joseph (1999). Rebellion. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Picador. ISBN 978-0-312-26383-6.
• Koeppen, Wolfgang (2002). The Hothouse. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1862075092.
• Stamm, Peter (2002). Agnes. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-747-54752-5.
• Jungk, Peter Stephan (2002). The Snowflake Constant. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-20182-2.
• Koeppen, Wolfgang (2003. A Sad Affair. Norton.
• Roth, Joseph (2003). Radetzky March. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-86207-605-1.
• Jungk, Peter Stephan (2004). The Perfect American. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Handsel Books. ISBN 978-1-59051-115-2.
• Jünger, Ernst (2004). Storm of Steel. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-243790-2.
• Hofmann, Gert (2004). Lichtenberg and the Little Flower Girl. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions Publishers. ISBN 978-0-8112-1568-8.
• Ledig, Gert (2004). The Stalin Organ. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-862-07652-5.
• Grünbein, Durs (2006). Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-53013-6.
• Bernhard, Thomas (2006). Frost. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Knopf. ISBN 978-1-400-04066-7.
• Stamm, Peter (2006). Unformed Landscape. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Handsel Books. ISBN 978-1-590-51226-5.
• Kafka, Franz (2006). The Zürau Aphorisms. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Schocken. ISBN 978-0-8052-1207-5.
• Stamm, Peter (2008). In Strange Gardens and other stories. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Other Press. ISBN 978-1-590-51169-5.
• Kafka, Franz (2007). Metamorphosis and other stories. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-14-310524-4.
• Wander, Fred (2007). The Seventh Well. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-06538-1.
• Keun, Irmgard (2008). Child of All Nations. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Penguin Classics. ISBN 978-0-713-99907-5.
• Stamm, Peter (2008). On a Day Like This. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Other Press. ISBN 978-1-590-51279-1.
• Fallada, Hans (2009). Every Man Dies Alone. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Melville House. ISBN 978-1-933633-63-3.
• Canetti, Elias (2010). Party in the Blitz. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Roth, Joseph (2011). The Leviathan. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Roth, Joseph (2012). Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32379-5.
• Benn, Gottfried (2013). Impromptus: Selected Poems and Some Prose. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-0-374-17537-5.
• Roth, Joseph (2013). The Emperor's Tomb. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Roth, Joseph (2015). The Hotel Years. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Kafka, Franz (2017). Investigations of a Dog & Other Creatures. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Döblin, Alfred (2018). Berlin Alexanderplatz. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New York Review Books.
• Kleist, Heinrich von (2020). Michael Kohlhaas. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Koeppen, Wolfgang (2020). Pigeons on the Grass. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Kafka, Franz (2020). The Lost Writings. Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: New Directions.
• Erpenbeck, Jenny (2023). Kairos. Translated by Michael Hofmann. London: Granta. ISBN 978-1-783-78612-1.

Editor

• Hofmann, Michael; Lasdun, James, eds. (1994), After Ovid: new metamorphoses, New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-52478-4
• Hofmann, Michael, ed. (2001), Robert Lowell, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-23040-2
• Hofmann, Michael, ed. (2005), The Faber Book of 20th Century German Poems, London: Faber and Faber, ISBN 978-0-571-19703-3
• Hofmann, Michael, ed. (2006), Twentieth-Century German Poetry: an anthology, New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, ISBN 978-0-374-10535-8

Notes

1. Oltermann, Philip (9 April 2016). "Michael Hofmann: 'English is basically a trap. It's almost a language for spies'". theguardian.com. Retrieved 17 July 2023.
2. "British Council > Literature > Michael Hofmann". britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
3. Hofmann, Michael (7 October 1993). "Don't Blub". London Review of Books. 15 (19): 18–19.
4. "Cambridge Tripos results", The Guardian, 21 June 1979, p. 4.
5. 'Michael Hofmann. b. 1957'. poetryfoundation.org. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
6. Brearton, Fran (1999), "An interview with Michael Hofmann: Where is our home key anyway?", Thumbscrew (3): 30–46, ISSN 1369-5371, archived from the original on 27 February 2017, retrieved 27 June 2007.
7. Michael Hofmann University of Florida, Department of English Faculty. Retrieved 16 January 2018
8. Hofmann, Michael (22 November 2019). "'The Resident', a new poem by Michael Hofmann". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
9. "Cholmondely Award for Poets (past winners)". The Society of Authors. 2007. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
10. Merrit, Moseley (2007). "The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
11. "Schlegel-Tieck Prize (past winners)". The Society of Authors. 2007. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
12. "Swedish author wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2003". Arts Council England. 7 April 2003. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
13. "Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize winners". PEN American Center. 2007. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
14. "Michael Hofmann recipient of the 2000 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize". Goethe Institute. 2000. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
15. "The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (previous winners)". St. Anne's College. 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
16. "The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry: Shortlist 2006 – Michael Hofmann". The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. 2007. Archived from the original on 1 July 2007. Retrieved 25 July 2007.
17. Creamer, Ella (12 July 2023). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
18. Creamer, Ella (21 May 2024). "Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck wins International Booker prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
19. Tumarkin, Maria (14 October 2016). "One F (in Hofmann) – and U-C-K the Consequences". The Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 17 July 2023.

External links

• Hofmann's faculty page at the University of Florida
• Michael Hofmann at British Council: Literature
• Griffin Poetry Prize biography
• Griffin Poetry Prize reading, including video clip
• Hofmann's articles for the LRB
• Hofmann's articles for the NYRB