Michael Hofmann | |
---|---|
Born | Freiburg, Germany | 25 August 1957
Occupation | Poet, translator |
Genre | Criticism, poetry, translation |
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]
Biography
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]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
[edit]Author
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- 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
[edit]- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ a b c d e "British Council > Literature > Michael Hofmann". britishcouncil.org. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- ^ Hofmann, Michael (7 October 1993). "Don't Blub". London Review of Books. 15 (19): 18–19.
- ^ "Cambridge Tripos results", The Guardian, 21 June 1979, p. 4.
- ^ 'Michael Hofmann. b. 1957'. poetryfoundation.org. Retrieved 5 October 2021.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Michael Hofmann University of Florida, Department of English Faculty. Retrieved 16 January 2018
- ^ Hofmann, Michael (22 November 2019). "'The Resident', a new poem by Michael Hofmann". Australian Book Review. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
- ^ "Cholmondely Award for Poets (past winners)". The Society of Authors. 2007. Archived from the original on 10 February 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ Merrit, Moseley (2007). "The Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize". Archived from the original on 20 July 2011. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ a b c d "Schlegel-Tieck Prize (past winners)". The Society of Authors. 2007. Archived from the original on 10 March 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize winners". PEN American Center. 2007. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 2 July 2007.
- ^ "Michael Hofmann recipient of the 2000 Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize". Goethe Institute. 2000. Retrieved 28 June 2007.
- ^ "The Oxford-Weidenfeld Translation Prize (previous winners)". St. Anne's College. 2007. Retrieved 27 June 2007.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Creamer, Ella (21 May 2024). "Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck wins International Booker prize". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 May 2024.
- ^ Tumarkin, Maria (14 October 2016). "One F (in Hofmann) – and U-C-K the Consequences". The Sydney Review of Books. Retrieved 17 July 2023.