Jen Hofer was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2002 she moved from the Centro Histórico in Mexico City to Cypress Park in Los Angeles, where she currently lives and works.
Jen Hofer is the author,
co-author or editor of the following books and chapbooks of poetry and prose: Aerial #10: Lyn Hejinian, critical volume co-edited with Rod Smith, Edge Books, Washington, DC (forthcoming). from the valley of death, Ponzipo, Denver, CO (forthcoming).
Laws, Dusie Books, Winterthur, Switzerland (forthcoming). one, Palm Press, Long Beach, CA: 2009.
or mountains or mountains, in collaboration with Sawako Nakayasu, Dusie Kollectiv, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2009
(available at
http://www.smallanimalproject.com/text/mountains/). The Route, in collaboration with Patrick Durgin, Atelos, Berkeley,
CA: 2008.
lawless, Seeing Eye Books, Los Angeles: 2003. slide rule, Subpress Collective, Honolulu, HI: 2002.
laws, A.bacus, Issue #139, Potes and Poets Press, Elmwood, CT:
July, 2001. as far as, a+bend press, Davis, CA: 1999 (re-issued 2010).
Jen Hofer has made many handmade artist’s editions and tiny books:
trouble, Dusie Kollektiv, Winterthur, Switzerland, 2010. 13 things i would photograph
for you if i could, handmade artist’s
edition, 2009.
Tangelo, in collaboration with Patrick Durgin, 2009. conditions, handmade artist’s edition, 2008. re ember,
in collaboration with Dan Machlin, 2008.
going going,
(available at http://www.dusie.org/goinggoing.pdf). condition of anonymity, handmade artist’s edition, 2007.
99 Concerns, in collaboration with Deborah Stratman, 2006. transportaciones,
based on Myriam Moscona’s velo verde, 2006.
aws (chapbook version), Dusie Kollectiv, Winterthur, Switzerland: 2006 (available at http://www.dusie.org/)
Within the field of translation, Jen has published the following books and collections:
Ivory Black, translation of Negro marfil by Myriam Moscona, Les Figues Press, Los Angeles, CA
(forthcoming). sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and Septiembre, a
bilingual edition of books two and three of Dolores Dorantes, by Dolores Dorantes, Counterpath Press and Kenning
Editions, Denver, CO and Chicago, IL: 2008. lip wolf, translation of lobo de labio by Laura Solórzano, Action Books, Notre Dame, IN: 2007.
Sin puertas visibles: An
Anthology of Contemporary Poetry by
Mexican Women, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA and
Ediciones Sin
Nombre, Mexico City: 2003.
Jen’s poetry, prose and translations are
included in numerous anthologies, most recently:
Encyclopedia, Vol. 2
F-K, ed. Tisa Bryant, Miranda Mellis and Kate Schatz (forthcoming). The
FSG Book of 20th-Century Latin American Poetry, poems by Myriam Moscona, ed. Ilan Stavans (forthcoming).
Poets on Teaching,
ed. Joshua Marie Wilkinson, University of Iowa Press, Iowa City (forthcoming). Starting Today: 100 Poems for Obama’s First 100 Days, ed. Arielle Greenberg and Rachel Zucker, Univ.
of Iowa Press, Iowa City: 2010.
no gender: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari
edwards, ed. Julian T. Brolaski, erica
kaufman and E. Tracy Grinnell, Belladonna
Books and Litmus Press, NY: 2009. The
Oxford Book of Latin American Poetry,
poems by Gamaliel Churata, Alfredo
Silva Estrada, Eugenio Montejo and Rosamel del Valle, ed. Cecilia
Vicuña and Ernesto Livon Grosman, Oxford University Press, New York:
2009.
The noulipian Analects, ed. Matias Viegener and Christine Wertheim, Les
Figues Press, Los Angeles, CA: 2007. War and Peace #3, ed.
Judith Goldman and Leslie Scalapino, O Books, Oakland: 2007.
Connecting Lines: New Poetry
from Mexico, poems by Jorge Fernández
Granados, Malva Flores and Alicia García-Bergua,
ed. Luis Cortés Bargalló and
Forrest Gander, Louisville, KY, Sarabande Books: 2006. Reversible Monuments: An Anthology of Contemporary
Mexican Poetry, poems by Malva Flores and
Claudia Hernández del Valle- Arizpe, ed. Mónica de la Torre and Michael Wiegers, Copper Canyon Press, Port Townsend, WA: 2002.
Jen has published poems, prose
and translations in many journals, including: 1913,
antennae, Aufgabe, Black
Clock, BOMB Magazine, The Brooklyn
Rail, Calque, Chain,
Circumference, critiphoria, HOW2,
Jacket, The Journal of
Aesthetics and Protest, Letras
Libres, Mandorla, Mar con Soroche, mark(s),
ON Contemporary Practice, OR, {out of nothing}, Punto de partida, Vanitas,
and With + Stand.
Jen Hofer received a B.A. from Brown University and M.F.A.s in Poetry and in Literary Translation from the University of Iowa. She taught at The Border Lab for Writers in Tijuana, the Community Humanities Education Program in Los Angeles, the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa University and the University of Iowa, and in 2009 she was the Moseley Chair in Poetry at Pomona College. She currently teaches poetics in the MFA programs at California Institute of the Arts and at Otis College of Art and Design, and teaches writing in the BFA program at Goddard College. She regularly translates catalog essays and other exhibition-related texts for institutions such as The Getty, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museo del Barrio, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, and the Museum of Modern Art. She works nationally and locally as a social justice interpreter.
Other Projects:
Jen Hofer performs public letter-writing on
the street, live film narration, and a serial episodic drama with a puppet
collective:
Escritorio público: The escritorio público is a public letter-writing desk set up on sidewalks, streets and plazas: a folding table made by the man who built my house in 1920, on which I arrange my grandmother’s Olivetti Lettera 22 typewriter, writing paper and envelopes. I type letters in either Spanish or English for passers-by, charging $2 for a letter, $3 for a love letter and $5 for an illicit love letter.
Recent and Upcoming Public Letter-Writing Sessions:
West Hollywood Book Fair, West Hollywood, CA, forthcoming September 2010.Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, forthcoming July 2010.
Red Rover, Chicago, IL, forthcoming June 2010.
post-moot Performance Festival and Conference, Miami University Ohio, April 2010.
Union Square, New York, September 2009.
“Wrong: A Program of Text and Image,” Eighth Veil Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, June 2009.
High Energy Constructs, Los Angeles, CA, October 2006.
Central Market, Los Angeles, CA, December 2005.
Fashion District, Los Angeles, CA, November 2005.
Live Film
narration: Live film narration is based on a silent-era practice, called
benshi, of narrating films live from just offscreen. A modern twist on the
form, live film narration invites writers to take sound movies, mute them and
re-inscribe new meanings to the pictures.
Recent Performances:
Hallwalls Contemporary Arts
Center, Buffalo, NY, March 2010. Woodland Pattern Book Center,
Milwaukee, WI, October 2009.
The DeYoung Museum, San Francisco,
CA, September 2009. Machine Project, Los Angeles, CA,
April 2009.
Roy and Edna Disney CalArts
Theater (REDCAT), Los Angeles, CA, April 2009. Rust Belt Books, Buffalo, NY,
February 2009.
REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA, December
2007. Small Press Traffic Literary Arts
Center, San Francisco, CA, January 2007.
Sunset
Chronicles: The Little Fakers Collective
collectively developed and produced this serial episodic melodrama populated
entirely by hand-made marionettes that takes place in real and imagined places
along the east end of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles
Performances
Sunset Chronicles Episodes 3-5 performed at The Velaslavasay Panorama, Los Angeles, CA, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
Sunset Chronicles Episode 2, Il Corral, Los Angeles, CA, June 2005.
Sunset Chronicles Episode 1.5, Beta Level, Los Angeles, CA, February 2005.
Sunset Chronicles Episode 1, Noah Purifoy Sculpture Environment, High Desert Test Sites, October 2004.
Other:
Contributing Editor, The Writer’s Chronicle, a publication of the Association of Writers and
Writing Programs, 2009-present. Board
Member, 1913: A Journal of Forms
and 1913 Press, 2007-present.
Board Member, Ether Sea Projects, publishers of Litmus Press and Aufgabe international literary journal, 2007-present.
Member, PEN American Center, 2005-present.