Richard "Richie" Joseph Hofmann, is an American poet, winner of the Alice James Award, and the

Pushcart Prize The Pushcart Prize is an American literary prize published by Pushcart Press that honors the best "poetry, short fiction, essays or literary whatnot" published in the small presses over the previous year. Magazine and small book press editors are ...

. He is regularly published in

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

, and has been featured in

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

and

The New York Review of Books ''The New York Review of Books'' (or ''NYREV'' or ''NYRB'') is a semi-monthly magazine with articles on literature, culture, economics, science and current affairs. Published in New York City, it is inspired by the idea that the discussion of i ...

. Hofmann was the

Jones Lecturer The Jones Lectureship at Stanford University is a two-year teaching fellowship available to previous Stegner Fellows. The Lectureship is available in fiction and poetry and is intended to provide writers with the time and support needed to complete ...

in poetry at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, where he taught poetry and creative writing courses.

Life and career

Hofmann is of German descent on both sides, with his father's family originating from

Speyer Speyer (, older spelling ''Speier'', French: ''Spire,'' historical English: ''Spires''; pfl, Schbaija) is a city in Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany with approximately 50,000 inhabitants. Located on the left bank of the river Rhine, Speyer li ...

. He spent his early childhood in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, which he cites as formative in his exploration of the concept of time, and his relationship to Europe within poetry. He has contributed to

since 2013, including audio readings for the online portion of the magazine. In interviews Hofmann often cites music, in particular opera and musicals, as having a strong influence on his life and work. He has described Sondheim's music as "the rock of my life", and wrote the poem "Birthday" as a tribute to

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

. Hofmann collaborated with the composer Brian Baxter to write the lyrics for the piece "Old World Elegy" for voice and string quartet. The world premier was held in Chicago, hosted by the

Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...

, and won the Memorious Art Song Contest of 2013. Hofmann's work often explores male desire, and relationship to the body. Comparisons drawn between his work and that of the late French autofiction writer and photographer

Hervé Guibert Hervé Guibert (14 December 1955 – 27 December 1991) was a French writer and photographer. The author of numerous novels and autobiographical studies, he played a considerable role in changing French public attitudes to HIV/AIDS. He was a ...

, led Hofmann to write more "intensely, in a way which was more vulgar". He also frequently includes classical themes and images in his poetry. In 2015 Hofmann published his first collection of poems, titled "Second Empire" with

Alice James Books Alice James Books is an American non-profit poetry press located in Farmington, Maine and affiliated with the University of Maine at Farmington. History and mission "Alice James Books was founded as a co-operative press in Cambridge, MA in 197 ...

which became critically acclaimed including the

for poetry. That year he also co-founded Lightbox Poetry, an online educational resource for creative writing, with fellow poet Kara van de Graaf. One of his most widely known poems is "Book of Statues", about the

hate crime A hate crime (also known as a bias-motivated crime or bias crime) is a prejudice-motivated crime which occurs when a perpetrator targets a victim because of their membership (or perceived membership) of a certain social group or racial demograph ...

murder of

Matthew Shepard Matthew Wayne Shepard (December 1, 1976 – October 12, 1998) was a gay American student at the University of Wyoming who was beaten, tortured, and left to die near Laramie on the night of October 6, 1998. He was taken by rescuers to Pou ...

on October 12, 1998. The poem was first published by the Academy of American Poets Poem-a Day on October 12, 2016. On the twentieth remembrance of Matthew Shepard's murder in 2018,

featured his poem with a reading by actor Matt Bomer. Hofmann published his second poetry collection "A Hundred Lovers" in 2022 with

Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

. The book was featured in the list of top "46 Must-Read Books by Queer Writers" in Esquire Magazine.

Awards

Hofmann has been the beneficiary of several fellowships, including the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from the

and the

Stegner Fellowship The Stegner Fellowship program is a two-year creative writing fellowship at Stanford University. The award is named after American Wallace Stegner (1909–1993), a historian, novelist, short story writer, environmentalist, and Stanford faculty mem ...

from

. For his first collection of poems, "Second Empire", Hofmann won both the Alice James Award in 2014, and the

Personal life

Hofmann is married to Ryan Hagerty to whom his first book, ''Second empire'', is dedicated. He has lived between the cities of

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

Poetry collections

* *

References

{{Reflist, 30em American LGBT poets Living people American gay writers 21st-century American LGBT people American male poets American male non-fiction writers 1987 births

Life and career

Awards

Personal life

Poetry collections

See also

References