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Keynote Speaker, Alice Hoffman

NJLA Conference, 2005
Wednesday, April 13
10 am

From the bestselling author of Practical Magic, a miraculous, enthralling tale of a woman who is struck by lightning, and finds her frozen heart is suddenly burning.

Alice Hoffman was born in New York City on March 16, 1952 and grew up on Long Island. After graduating from high school in 1969, she attended Adelphi University, from which she received a BA, and then was a Mirrellees Fellowship at the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, which she attended in 1973 and 74, receiving an MA in creative writing.

Hoffman’s first novel, PROPERTY OF, was written at the age of twenty-one; while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Ms. Hoffman credits her mentor, professor and writer Albert J. Guerard and his wife, the writer Maclin Bocock Guerard, for helping her to publish her first short story in the magazine FICTION. Editor Ted Solotaroff then contacted her to ask if she had a novel, at which point she quickly began to write what was to become PROPERTY OF, a section of which was published in Mr. Solotaroff’s magazine, American Review. Hoffman has been represented by Elaine Markson of the Elaine Markson Agency for the past twenty-five years. Hoffman is married, lives outside Boston, and is the mother of two sons.

Alice Hoffman has published a total of fifteen novels, two books of short fiction, and six books for children. Her novel, HERE ON EARTH, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece WUTHERING HEIGHTS. PRACTICAL MAGIC was Warner’s film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Ms. Hoffman’s novel, AT RISK, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. All of the author’s advance from LOCAL GIRLS (G.P. Putnam and Berkley Books), a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, have been donated to help create a breast cancer center outside of Boston. Hoffman's most recent books are GREEN ANGEL (Scholastic) a novel for teens, MOONDOG (Scholastic) a picture book written with her son, Wolfe Martin, The New York Times bestsellers THE RIVER KING, BLUE DIARY, and THE PROBABLE FUTURE and BLACKBIRD HOUSE, published by Ballantine in March 2005. The ICE QUEEN, published by Little, Brown and Company, is a searing first person account of a dark fairy tale world where anything is possible.

Hoffman’s work has been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. Ms. Hoffman has also worked as a screenwriter for many years and is the author of the original screenplay INDEPENDENCE DAY, a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Weist. Hoffman’s short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Boulevard, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, Premier, Self, Southwestern Review and many other magazines.

Alice Hoffman appears courtesy Little, Brown & Company.