Michael Hofmann Last updated August 10, 2025 German-born poet (born 1957)
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 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. [ 2] He grew up in a family with a literary tradition. His maternal grandfather edited the Brockhaus Enzyklopädie . [ 3] Hofmann's family first moved to Bristol in 1961, and later to Edinburgh . He was educated at Winchester College , [ 4] and then studied English Literature and Classics at Magdalene College, Cambridge , graduating with a BA in 1979. [ 5] [ 6] For the next four years, he pursued postgraduate study at the University of Regensburg and Trinity College, Cambridge . [ 3]
In 1983, Hofmann started working as a freelance writer, translator, and literary critic . [ 7] 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. [ 8]
In 2008, Hofmann was Poet-in-Residence in the state of Queensland in Australia. [ 9]
Hofmann has two sons, Max (1991) and Jakob (1993).[ citation needed ] He splits his time between Hamburg and Gainesville, Florida . [ 1]
Critical writing Maria Tumarkin describes Hofmann's review writing as "masterful" and "convention-eviscerating". [ 20] 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 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 (1996). 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. Herzog, Werner (2023). Every Man for Himself and God Against All: A Memoir . Translated by Michael Hofmann. New York, NY: Penguin. 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 2 3 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 . ↑ Contemporary Authors, Vol. 160 (1998), p. 165f. 1 2 3 4 5 "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 . 1 2 3 4 "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 . External links
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