Hofmann is of German descent on both sides, with his father's family originating from
Speyer. He spent his early childhood in
Munich, which he cites as formative in his exploration of the concept of time, and his relationship to Europe within poetry. He has contributed to
The New Yorker since 2013, including audio readings for the online portion of the magazine. In interviews Hofmann often cites music, in particular opera and musicals, as having a strong influence on his life and work. He has described
Sondheim's music as "the rock of my life", and wrote the poem "Birthday" as a tribute to
Mozart. Hofmann collaborated with the composer Brian Baxter to write the lyrics for the piece "Old World Elegy" for voice and string quartet. The world premier was held in Chicago, hosted by the
Poetry Foundation, and won the Memorious Art Song Contest of 2013. Hofmann's work often explores male desire, and relationship to the body. Comparisons drawn between his work and that of the late French autofiction writer and photographer
Hervé Guibert, led Hofmann to write more "intensely, in a way which was more vulgar". He also frequently includes classical themes and images in his poetry. In 2015 Hofmann published his first collection of poems, titled
Second Empire, which was awarded the 2014
Alice James Award, then known as the Beatrice Hawley Award, by
Alice James Books and became critically acclaimed. That year he also co-founded Lightbox Poetry, an online educational resource for creative writing, with fellow poet Kara van de Graaf. One of his most widely known poems is "Book of Statues", about the
hate crime murder of
Matthew Shepard on October 12, 1998. The poem was first published by the
Academy of American Poets Poem-a Day on October 12, 2016. On the twentieth remembrance of Matthew Shepard's murder in 2018,
The New York Times featured his poem with a reading by actor
Matt Bomer. Hofmann published his second poetry collection
A Hundred Lovers in 2022 with
Random House. The book was featured in the list of top "46 Must-Read Books by Queer Writers" in
Esquire Magazine. In 2026 Hofmann published his third collection, titled
The Bronze Arms , a queer coming-of-age poetry book that draws on his childhood near-drowning in Crete and imagery from classical antiquity to explore themes of desire, vulnerability, and survival. ==Awards==