Eva Hoffman
November 13th, 2002
Conflicting Memories, Contested Past: Some Reflections on
Polish-Jewish Relations
Eva Hoffman was born in Krakow, Poland, where she received her
early schooling and musical education before emigrating to
Canada with her family in 1959. After receiving her Ph.D. from
Harvard University, she taught literature and settled in New
York City. While working as the editor of The New York Times Book
Review, her first critically acclaimed book, Lost in
Translation (E.P. Dutton, 1989) was published.
Her intricate descriptions of the intellectual and emotional
disruptions accompanying immigration into not only a new world,
but also one that is expressed in a new language, won her a Whiting
Award for writing. Hoffman’s ties to her Polish homeland
show even more strongly in her most recent book, Shtetl: The
Life and Death of a Small Town and the World of Polish Jews
(Houghton-Mifflin, 1997), which delves into the complicated
relations between Poles and Jews from the 16th to the 20th
century.
Hoffman is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and awards
from the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and
Letters.