Amy Hoffman (born 1952) is an American writer, editor, and

community activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

Early life

Hoffman was born to a traditional Jewish family. She is the eldest of six children, and grew up in

Rutherford, New Jersey Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 18,834, an increase of 773 (+4.3%) from the 2010 census count of 18,061, which in turn reflected a de ...

. Hoffman graduated from

Brandeis University Brandeis University () is a Private university, private research university in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located within the Greater Boston area. Founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian, non-sectarian, coeducational university, Bra ...

in 1976. She received her Masters of Fine Arts from the

University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) is a public land-grant research university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States. It is the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system and was founded in 1863 as the ...

Career

Hoffman worked as an editor for Boston's ''Gay Community News'' from 1978 to 1982. As features editor, she was responsible for putting together the June 1979 Stonewall tenth anniversary issue. She also served a development director for Massachusetts Foundations for the Humanities and the Women's Lunch Place. During the mid-1980s, Hoffman worked with Cindy Patton to publish a sex-positive magazine for several years. Named ''Bad Attitude'', it was part of what became known as the lesbian sex wars. Lesbian pornography had previously been created with the pleasure of straight men in mind. Patton and Hoffman sought to create a magazine that would celebrate the erotic potential of women with women in a way that affirmed lesbian sexuality, and de-centered straight men's pleasure. Hoffman published her first book, ''Hospital Time,'' in 1997, with a foreword by

Urvashi Vaid Urvashi Vaid (October 8, 1958 – May 14, 2022) was an Indian-born American LGBT rights activist, lawyer, and writer. An expert in gender and sexuality law, she was a consultant in attaining specific goals of social justice. She held a series of ...

. The book recollects her friendship with Mike Riegle in the wake of his death from

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

. In 2007, Hoffman wrote the memoir ''An Army of Ex-Lovers'' about her time as an editor for ''Gay Community News.'' The memoir was met with positive reviews in

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

and

mainstream media In journalism, mainstream media (MSM) is a term and abbreviation used to refer collectively to the various large Mass media, mass news media that influence many people and both reflect and shape prevailing currents of thought.Noam Chomsky, Choms ...

, and was a finalist for the

Publishing Triangle The Publishing Triangle, founded in 1988 by Robin Hardy, is an American association of gay men and lesbians in the publishing industry. They sponsor an annual National Lesbian and Gay Book Month, and have sponsored the annual Triangle Awards prog ...

Judy Grahn Award and a Lambda Book Award in 2008.'''' Hoffman was editor-in-chief of '' Women's Review of Books'' from 2003 to 2004 and from 2006 to 2018. ''Women's Review of Books'' had shut down between these periods due to lack of financing; Hoffman was the party most responsible for reviving the magazine. Hoffman is faculty-at-large at

Lasell University Lasell University (LU) is a private university in Newton, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded in 1851 as a women's seminary. It became a college in 1932, a four-year institution in 1989, coeducational in 1997, and a university proper in ...

's Creative Nonfiction MFA program. Hoffman is the editor, along wit
Jyotsna Vaid
of the forthcoming book
The Dream of a Common Movement: Selected Writings of Urvashi Vaid.
' Vaid, who died in 2022, was a LGBTQ+ activist, author, and civil rights lawyer. The book of writings and speeches will be published b
Duke University Press
available on April 15, 2025.

Personal life

Amy Hoffman is married to Roberta Stone.

Publications

Memoirs

* * *

Novels

* *

Panels

* Moderated
Gay Community News at 50: Content, Controversy, & Coverage
' panel at

Massachusetts Historical Society The Massachusetts Historical Society (MHS) is a major historical archive specializing in early American, Massachusetts, and New England history. The Massachusetts Historical Society was established in 1791 and is located at 1154 Boylston Street ...

in partnership wit
The History Project

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffman, Amy 1952 births Brandeis University alumni American lesbian writers Living people Writers from Rutherford, New Jersey Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American newspaper editors American women memoirists 21st-century American novelists American women novelists American LGBTQ novelists LGBTQ people from New Jersey