Michael Hofmann Explained

Michael Hofmann
Birth Date:1957 8, df=y
Birth Place:Freiburg, Germany
Occupation:Poet, translator
Genre:Criticism, poetry, translation

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".[1]

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. 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.[6]

In 2008, Hofmann was Poet-in-Residence in the state of Queensland in Australia.[7]

Hofmann has two sons, Max (1991) and Jakob (1993). He splits his time between Hamburg and Gainesville, Florida.[8]

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.

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, 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. 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

Translator

. Franz Kafka . Michael Hofmann . 2006 . The Zürau Aphorisms . New York, NY . . 978-0-8052-1207-5 .

. Jenny Erpenbeck . Michael Hofmann . 2023 . Kairos . London . Granta . 978-1-783-78612-1 .

Editor

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Oltermann . Philip . 9 April 2016 . Michael Hofmann: 'English is basically a trap. It's almost a language for spies' . . 17 July 2023 .
  2. Web site: British Council > Literature > Michael Hofmann . britishcouncil.org . 8 July 2023 .
  3. Don't Blub . Hofmann, Michael . 7 October 1993 . London Review of Books . 15 . 19 . 18–19. subscription .
  4. "Cambridge Tripos results", The Guardian, 21 June 1979, p. 4.
  5. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/michael-hofmann 'Michael Hofmann. b. 1957'
  6. http://web.english.ufl.edu/faculty/mhofmann/index.html Michael Hofmann
  7. Web site: Hofmann. Michael. 2019-11-22. 'The Resident', a new poem by Michael Hofmann. 2021-09-24. Australian Book Review. en-gb.
  8. Web site: Oltermann . Philip . 9 April 2016 . Michael Hofmann: 'English is basically a trap. It's almost a language for spies' . . 17 July 2023 .
  9. Web site: Cholmondely Award for Poets (past winners) . The Society of Authors . 2007 . 27 June 2007 . 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 . 10 February 2007 . usurped.
  10. Web site: Merrit . Moseley . The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize . 2007 . 27 June 2007 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110720092949/http://facstaff.unca.edu/moseley/faber.html . 20 July 2011.
  11. Web site: Schlegel-Tieck Prize (past winners) . The Society of Authors . 2007 . 27 June 2007 . 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 . 10 March 2007 . usurped.
  12. Web site: Swedish author wins Independent Foreign Fiction Prize 2003. Arts Council England. 7 April 2003. 2 July 2007. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070929162034/http://www.arts.org.uk/pressnews/press_detail.php?rid=10&id=34&page=11. 29 September 2007.
  13. Web site: Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize winners. PEN American Center. 2007. 2 July 2007. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20110607175517/http://www.pen.org/page.php/prmID/591. 7 June 2011.
  14. Web site: Michael Hofmann recipient of the 2000 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize. Goethe Institute. 2000. 28 June 2007 .
  15. Web site: The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (previous winners). St. Anne's College. 2007. 27 June 2007 .
  16. Web site: The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry: Shortlist 2006 – Michael Hofmann. The Griffin Trust for Excellence in Poetry. 2007. 25 July 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070701220554/http://www.griffinpoetryprize.com/shortlist_2006.php?t=5. 1 July 2007.
  17. News: Creamer . Ella . 2023-07-12 . Royal Society of Literature aims to broaden representation as it announces 62 new fellows . en-GB . The Guardian . 2023-07-13 . 0261-3077.
  18. News: Creamer . Ella . Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck wins International Booker prize . 21 May 2024 . The Guardian . 21 May 2024.
  19. Web site: Tumarkin . Maria . 14 October 2016 . One F (in Hofmann) – and U-C-K the Consequences . The Sydney Review of Books . 17 July 2023 .

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