Manuela Vali Hoelterhoff is a German-born American cultural journalist, who was the executive editor of ''Muse'', the arts and culture section of

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

until 2015. She is a

Pulitzer Prize for Criticism The Pulitzer Prize for Criticism has been presented since 1970 to a newspaper writer in the United States who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism'. Recipients of the award are chosen by an independent board and officially administered by ...

laureate.

Personal life and education

Manuela V. Hoelterhoff was born April 6, 1949, in

Hamburg, Germany (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, to a Latvian mother, Olga Christina Alexandrovna Goertz, a native of

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the ...

, and a German father, Heinz Alfons Martin Hoelterhoff. She immigrated to the United States with her parents in 1957. Hoelterhoff holds a bachelor's degree from

Hofstra University Hofstra University is a private university in Hempstead, New York. It is Long Island's largest private university. Hofstra originated in 1935 as an extension of New York University (NYU) under the name Nassau College – Hofstra Memorial of New ...

, and a master's degree from the Institute of Fine Arts of

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

Professional career

Hoelterhoff is a commentator and editor whose topics have ranged widely over the contemporary world to include opera and theater, art and architecture, literature and travel, and how animals affect our lives. Her first articles appeared in

William F. Buckley William Frank Buckley Jr. (born William Francis Buckley; November 24, 1925 – February 27, 2008) was an American public intellectual, conservative author and political commentator. In 1955, he founded ''National Review'', the magazine that stim ...

's ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by the author William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief ...

''. There followed a twenty-year stint at ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', where she wrote reviews and served as arts editor, books editor and member of the editorial board. In this period, she was also a founding editor of ''SmartMoney'' magazine, and worked with

Harold Evans Sir Harold Matthew Evans (28 June 192823 September 2020) was a British-American journalist and writer. In his career in his native Britain, he was editor of ''The Sunday Times'' from 1967 to 1981, and its sister title ''The Times'' for a year f ...

on creating Conde Nast Traveler. Hoelterhoff won the annual

for her 1982 work with ''The Wall Street Journal'', citing "her wide-ranging criticism on the arts and other subjects". In 1998, Alfred A. Knopf published her ''Cinderella & Company: Backstage at the Opera with Cecilia Bartoli'', which was widely reviewed. It was translated into French, German and Dutch and it received positive reviews. In 2000 she was named a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

to research Hitler's opera obsessions. In 2004, Hoelterhoff was hired by Matt Winkler to create a cultural section for

, the company's financial news service. Muse publishes daily on all the arts – from the visual and performing arts to the literary and culinary, plus movies, TV, the art market, cars, gadgets, the environment, travel, and animals.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoelterhoff, Manuela Pulitzer Prize for Criticism winners The Wall Street Journal people Emigrants from West Germany to the United States American people of Latvian descent Hofstra University alumni New York University alumni Living people 1949 births American women journalists American women critics American opera librettists Women opera librettists 21st-century American women