Cara Hoffman

At Johns Hopkins, Cara Hoffman is a lecturer for the MA in Writing program.

Hoffman is the author of three New York Times Editors’ Choice novels including Running, an Esquire Magazine Best Book of the Year, and an Autostraddle Best Queer and Feminist Book of the Year; The feminist classic So Much Pretty.

Hoffman first received national attention in 2011 with the publication of So Much Pretty which sparked a national dialogue on violence and retribution and was named a Best Novel of the Year by the New York Times Book Review. Her second novel, Be Safe I Love You, was nominated for a Folio Prize, and named one of the Five Best Modern War Novels by the Telegraph UK. She is currently at work on a book about insurrectionary violence forthcoming from Pantehon in 2027.

Hoffman began her career as an investigative reporter covering crime and environmental politics in Northern Appalachia and the Rust Belt. She has written for the New York Times, The Paris Review, Bookforum, Bennington Review, The Daily Beast, Rolling Stone, Teen Vogue, Elle, Brooklyn Rail and NPR.

A Macdowell Fellow and an Edward Albee Fellow, Hoffman has been a visiting lecturer at St. John’s, Goddard College, and Oxford University.