Through the course of numerous novels, Alice Hoffman's work has been characterized by "a shimmering prose style, the fusing of fantasy and realism, [and] the preoccupation with the way the mythic weaves itself into the everyday," Alexandra Johnson summarized in the Boston Review. "Hoffman's narrative domain is the domestic, the daily. Yet her vision--and voice--are lyrical," the critic continues. "She is a writer whose prose style is often praised as painterly, and, indeed, Hoffman's fictional world is like a Vermeer: a beautifully crafted study of the interior life." Hoffman's characters "tend to be rebels and eccentrics," Stella Dong stated in a Publishers Weekly interview with the author. Hoffman explained that she writes about such people "because they're outsiders and to some extent, we all think of ourselves as outsiders. We're looking for that other person--man, woman, parent or child--who will make us whole." As the author once told CA: "I suppose my main concern is the search for identity and continuity, and the struggle inherent in that search."

Personal Information

Born March 16, 1952, in New York, NY
Married Tom Martin (a writer)
Children: Jake, Zack
Education: Adelphi University, B.A., 1973; Stanford University, M.A., 1975
Home Address: Brookline, MA
Agent Address: c/o Author Mail, Little, Brown and Company, 1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020

Awards

Mirelles fellow, Stanford University, 1975
Bread Loaf fellowship, summer, 1976
Notable Books of 1979 list, Library Journal, for The Drowning Season

Novels

• Property Of, Farrar, Straus (New York, NY), 1977.
• The Drowning Season, Dutton (New York, NY), 1979.
• Angel Landing, Putnam (New York, NY), 1980.
• White Horses, Putnam (New York, NY), 1982.
• Fortune's Daughter, Putnam (New York, NY), 1985.
• Illumination Night, Putnam (New York, NY), 1987.
• At Risk, Putnam (New York, NY), 1988.
• Seventh Heaven, Putnam (New York, NY), 1990.
• Turtle Moon, Berkley (New York, NY), 1993
• Second Nature, Putnam (New York, NY), 1994.
• Practical Magic, Putnam (New York, NY), 1995.
• Here on Earth, Putnam (New York, NY), 1997.
• The River King, Putnam (New York, NY), 2000.
• Blue Diary, Putnam (New York, NY), 2001.
• The Probable Future, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2003.
• Blackbird House, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2004.
• The Ice Queen, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2005.
• The Foretelling, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2005.
• Incantation, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2006.
• Skylight Confessions, Little, Brown and Company (New York, NY), 2007.

For Children

• Fireflies, illustrated by Wayne McLoughlin, Hyperion (New York, NY), 1997.
• Horsefly, illustrated by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher, Hyperion (New York, NY), 2000.
• Aquamarine, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2001.
• Indigo, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2002.
• Green Angel, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2003.
• (With Wolfe Martin) Moondog, illustrated by Yumi Heo, Scholastic (New York, NY), 2004.

Other

• Independence Day (screenplay), Warner Bros., 1983.
• Local Girls (short stories), Putnam (New York, NY), 1999.

Also author of other screenplays. Contributor of stories to Ms., Redbook, Fiction, American Review, and Playgirl.

Media Adaptations

Practical Magic was adapted by Robin Swicord, Akiva Goldsman, and Adam Brooks into a film directed by Griffin Dunne, starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, and Aidan Quinn, and released by Warner Bros. in 1998; Aquamarine was made into a film directed by Elizabeth Allen, produced by Susan Cartsonis, and released by Twentieth Century Fox in 2006; a sound recording was produced of Local Girls.

The biographical information above was taken from
Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2007. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2007. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.

You can see the entry in its entirety in the Biography Resource Center Database. You will need an OWLSnet Library Card to access the database.