Michael Hofmann

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German-born poet (born 1957)

title: "Michael Hofmann" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1957-births", "living-people", "21st-century-translators", "german–english-translators", "german-language-poets", "alumni-of-magdalene-college,-cambridge", "university-of-florida-faculty", "fellows-of-the-royal-society-of-literature"] description: "German-born poet (born 1957)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Hofmann" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary German-born poet (born 1957) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox writer"]

FieldValue
nameMichael Hofmann
imageMichael Hofmann at the 2025 Jaipur Literature Festival (cropped).jpg
captionHofmann in 2025
birth_date
birth_placeFreiburg im Breisgau, Germany
occupationPoet, translator
genreCriticism, poetry, translation
honorific_suffix
relativesGert Hofmann (father), Eva (Thomas) Hofmann (mother)
alma_materUniversity of Cambridge
::

| name = Michael Hofmann | image = Michael Hofmann at the 2025 Jaipur Literature Festival (cropped).jpg | imagesize = | caption = Hofmann in 2025 | pseudonym = | birth_date = | birth_place = Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany | death_date = | death_place = | occupation = Poet, translator | nationality = | period = | genre = Criticism, poetry, translation | subject = | movement = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = | honorific_suffix = | relatives = Gert Hofmann (father), Eva (Thomas) Hofmann (mother) | alma_mater = University of Cambridge

Michael Hofmann (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".

Biography

Michael Hofmann was born in Freiburg im Breisgau (West Germany), the son of German novelist Gert Hofmann and his wife Eva (Thomas) Hofmann, a teacher. He grew up in a family with a literary tradition. His maternal grandfather edited the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie. Hofmann's family first moved to Bristol in 1961, and later to Edinburgh. He was educated at Winchester College, and then studied English Literature and Classics at Magdalene College, Cambridge, graduating with a BA in 1979. For the next four years, he pursued postgraduate study at the University of Regensburg and Trinity College, Cambridge.

In 1983, Hofmann started working as a freelance writer, translator, and literary critic.{{Citation | last = Brearton | first = Fran | title = An interview with Michael Hofmann: Where is our home key anyway? | journal = Thumbscrew | issue = 3 | pages = 30–46 | year = 1999 | url = http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=8095 | issn = 1369-5371 | accessdate = 27 June 2007 | postscript = . | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170227194614/http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=8095 | archive-date = 27 February 2017 | url-status = dead 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.

In 2008, Hofmann was Poet-in-Residence in the state of Queensland in Australia.

Hofmann has two sons, Max (1991) and Jakob (1993). He splits his time between Hamburg and Gainesville, Florida.

Honours

Hofmann received the Cholmondeley Award in 1984 for Nights in the Iron Hotel{{cite web |title=Cholmondely Award for Poets (past winners) |publisher=The Society of Authors |year=2007 |url=http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?pid=22&par_nm=Prizes%2C+grants+and+awards&parentid=7 |accessdate=27 June 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070210215510/http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?pid=22&par_nm=Prizes%2C%2Bgrants%2Band%2Bawards&parentid=7 |archivedate=10 February 2007 |url-status=usurped |last = Merrit |first = Moseley |title = The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize |year = 2007 |url = http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/faber.html |accessdate = 27 June 2007 |url-status = dead |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20110720092949/http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/faber.html |archivedate = 20 July 2011 |title=Schlegel-Tieck Prize (past winners) |publisher=The Society of Authors |year=2007 |url=http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?pid=45&sid=11&par_nm=Translation+prizes&parentid=7 |accessdate=27 June 2007 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070310073715/http://www.societyofauthors.net/soa/page_id_sub.php4?pid=45&sid=11&par_nm=Translation%2Bprizes&parentid=7 |archivedate=10 March 2007 |url-status=usurped

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

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. 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).{{cite web | title = Michael Hofmann recipient of the 2000 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize | publisher = Goethe Institute | year = 2000 | url = http://www.goethe.de/ins/us/lp/prj/wol/rec/2000/enindex.htm | accessdate = 28 June 2007 }} In 2003 he received another Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of his father's Luck, and in 2004 he was awarded the Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize for his translation of Ernst Jünger's Storm of Steel.{{cite web | title = The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (previous winners) | publisher = St. Anne's College | year = 2007 | url = http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/translationprize/prevwinners.html | accessdate = 27 June 2007 }} In 2005 Hofmann runner-up for the Schlegel-Tieck Prize for his translation of Gert Ledig's The Stalin Organ. 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.{{cite web | title = The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry: Shortlist 2006 – Michael Hofmann | publisher = The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry | year = 2007 | url = http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/shortlist_2006.php?t=5 | accessdate = 25 July 2007 | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070701220554/http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/shortlist_2006.php?t=5 | archivedate = 1 July 2007}}

Hoffman was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2023.

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.

Critical writing

Maria Tumarkin describes Hofmann's review writing as "masterful" and "convention-eviscerating". 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."

Selected bibliography

Author

  • {{Cite book | title = Nights in the Iron Hotel | year = 1984 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-13116-7}}
  • {{Cite book | title = Acrimony | year = 1986 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-14528-7 }}
  • {{Cite book | title = Corona, Corona | year = 1993 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-17052-4}}
  • {{Cite book | title = Approximately Nowhere: poems | year = 1999 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-19524-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/approximatelynow00hofm
  • {{Cite book | title = Behind the Lines: Pieces on Writing and Pictures | year = 2002 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-19523-7 | url = https://archive.org/details/behindlinespiece0000hofm
  • {{Cite book | title = Where Have You Been?: Selected Essays | year = 2014 | place = New York | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | isbn = 978-0-374-25996-9}}
  • {{Cite book |title= Messing About in Boats |location= Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2021}}

Translator

  • {{Cite book | first = Kurt | last = Tucholsky | author-link = Kurt Tucholsky | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Castle Gripsholm: A Summer Story | year = 1985 | location = London | publisher = Chatto and Windus | isbn = 978-0-7011-2993-4 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Wim | last = Wenders | author-link = Wim Wenders | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Emotion Pictures: Reflections on the Cinema | year = 1989 | location = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-15272-8 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Wim | last = Wenders | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Logic of Images: Essays and Conversations | year = 1992 | location = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-16517-9 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Wolfgang | last = Koeppen | author-link = Wolfgang Koeppen | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Death in Rome | year = 1992 | location = London | publisher = Granta | isbn = 978-1-86207-589-4 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Joseph | last = Roth | author-link = Joseph Roth | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The String of Pearls | year = 1995 | location = London | publisher = Granta | isbn = 978-1-86207-087-5}}
  • {{Cite book | first = Gert | last = Hofmann | author-link = Gert Hofmann | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Film Explainer | year = 1995 | location = Evanston | publisher = Northwestern University Press | isbn = 978-0-8101-1293-3
  • {{Cite book | first = Patrick | last = Süskind | author-link = Patrick Süskind | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Double Bass | year = 1997 | location = London | publisher = Bloomsbury | isbn = 978-0-7011-2993-4 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Patrick | last = Süskind | author-link = | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Story of Mr Sommer | date = 13 October 2023 | location = London | publisher = Fox, Finch & Tepper | isbn = 978-0-99-304672-8 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Franz | last = Kafka | author-link = Franz Kafka | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Man Who Disappeared (Amerika) | year = 1996 | location = London | publisher = Penguin | isbn = 978-0-140-18621-5
  • {{Cite book | first = Herta | last = Müller | author-link = Herta Müller | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Land of Green Plums | year = 1998 | location = London | publisher = Granta | isbn = 978-1-86207-260-2 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Joseph | last = Roth | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Rebellion | year = 1999 | location = London | publisher = Picador | isbn = 978-0-312-26383-6}}
  • {{Cite book | first = Wolfgang | last = Koeppen | translator= Michael Hofmann | title = The Hothouse | year = 2002 | location = London | publisher = Granta | isbn = 978-1862075092}}
  • {{Cite book | first = Peter | last = Stamm | author-link = Peter Stamm | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Agnes | year = 2002 | location = London | publisher = Bloomsbury | isbn = 978-0-747-54752-5 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Peter Stephan | last = Jungk | author-link = Peter Stephan Jungk | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Snowflake Constant | year = 2002 | location = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-20182-2 }}
  • Koeppen, Wolfgang (2003. A Sad Affair. Norton.
  • {{Cite book | first = Joseph | last = Roth | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Radetzky March | year = 2003 | location = London | publisher = Granta | isbn = 978-1-86207-605-1 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Peter Stephan | last = Jungk | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Perfect American | year = 2004 | place = New York, NY | publisher = Handsel Books | isbn = 978-1-59051-115-2
  • {{Cite book | first = Ernst | last = Jünger | author-link = Ernst Jünger | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Storm of Steel | year = 2004 | location = London | publisher = Penguin Classics | isbn = 978-0-14-243790-2
  • {{Cite book | first = Gert | last = Hofmann | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Lichtenberg and the Little Flower Girl | year = 2004 | location = New York, NY | publisher = New Directions Publishers | isbn = 978-0-8112-1568-8
  • {{Cite book | first = Gert | last = Ledig | author-link = Gert Ledig | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Stalin Organ | year = 2004 | location = London | publisher = Granta | isbn = 978-1-862-07652-5
  • {{Cite book | first = Durs | last = Grünbein | author-link = Durs Grünbein | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Ashes for Breakfast: Selected Poems | year = 2006 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | isbn = 978-0-374-53013-6 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Thomas | last = Bernhard | author-link = Thomas Bernhard | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Frost | year = 2006 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Knopf | isbn = 978-1-400-04066-7 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Peter | last = Stamm | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Unformed Landscape | year = 2006 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Handsel Books | isbn = 978-1-590-51226-5 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Peter | last = Stamm | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = In Strange Gardens and other stories | year = 2008 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Other Press | isbn = 978-1-590-51169-5 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Fred | last = Wander | author-link = Fred Wander | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = The Seventh Well | year = 2007 | location = New York, NY | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company | isbn = 978-0-393-06538-1 | url = https://archive.org/details/seventhwell00wand_0
  • {{Cite book | first = Irmgard | last = Keun | author-link = Irmgard Keun | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Child of All Nations | year = 2008 | location = London | publisher = Penguin Classics | isbn = 978-0-713-99907-5 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Peter | last = Stamm | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = On a Day Like This | year = 2008 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Other Press | isbn = 978-1-590-51279-1 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Hans | last = Fallada | author-link = Hans Fallada | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Every Man Dies Alone | year = 2009 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Melville House | isbn = 978-1-933633-63-3 }}
  • {{Cite book | first = Joseph | last = Roth | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Joseph Roth: A Life in Letters | year = 2012 | location = New York, NY | publisher = W. W. Norton & Company | isbn = 978-0-393-32379-5}}
  • {{Cite book | first = Gottfried | last = Benn | author-link = Gottfried Benn | translator = Michael Hofmann | title = Impromptus: Selected Poems and Some Prose | year = 2013 | location = New York, NY | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | isbn = 978-0-374-17537-5 }}

Editor

  • {{Citation | editor-last = Hofmann | editor-first = Michael | editor2-last = Lasdun | editor2-first = James | title = After Ovid: new metamorphoses | year = 1994 | place = New York, NY | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | isbn = 978-0-374-52478-4 | url = https://archive.org/details/afterovid00mich
  • {{Citation | editor-last = Hofmann | editor-first = Michael | title = Robert Lowell | year = 2001 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-23040-2 }}
  • {{Citation | editor-last = Hofmann | editor-first = Michael | title = The Faber Book of 20th Century German Poems | year = 2005 | place = London | publisher = Faber and Faber | isbn = 978-0-571-19703-3 }}
  • {{Citation | editor-last = Hofmann | editor-first = Michael | title = Twentieth-Century German Poetry: an anthology | year = 2006 | place = New York, NY | publisher = Farrar, Straus and Giroux | isbn = 978-0-374-10535-8 }}

Notes

References

  1. Oltermann, Philip. (9 April 2016). "Michael Hofmann: 'English is basically a trap. It's almost a language for spies'".
  2. Contemporary Authors, Vol. 160 (1998), p. 165f.
  3. "British Council > Literature > Michael Hofmann".
  4. Hofmann, Michael. (7 October 1993). "Don't Blub". London Review of Books.
  5. "Cambridge Tripos results", ''The Guardian'', 21 June 1979, p. 4.
  6. [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/michael-hofmann 'Michael Hofmann. b. 1957']. ''poetryfoundation.org''. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
  7. [http://web.english.ufl.edu/faculty/mhofmann/index.html Michael Hofmann] University of Florida, Department of English Faculty. Retrieved 16 January 2018
  8. Hofmann, Michael. (2019-11-22). "'The Resident', a new poem by Michael Hofmann".
  9. (7 April 2003). "Swedish author wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2003". Arts Council England.
  10. (2007). "Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize winners". PEN American Center.
  11. Creamer, Ella. (2023-07-12). "Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows". The Guardian.
  12. (21 May 2024). "''Kairos'' by Jenny Erpenbeck wins International Booker prize". The Guardian.
  13. Tumarkin, Maria. (14 October 2016). "One F (in Hofmann) – and U-C-K the Consequences".

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1957-birthsliving-people21st-century-translatorsgerman–english-translatorsgerman-language-poetsalumni-of-magdalene-college,-cambridgeuniversity-of-florida-facultyfellows-of-the-royal-society-of-literature