Alice Hoffman

WRITER'S ALMANAC

Today is the birthday of American novelist Alice Hoffman (1952), whose best-selling novels, like Practical Magic and The Dovekeepers, are a blend of magical realism, romance, and irony. Hoffman grew up on Long Island, where her Russian grandmother kept her entertained with fairytales like the Baba Yaga, about a witch who lives in a house on chicken legs. Hoffman's childhood wasn't easy: her father abandoned the family, but he left a box of books behind that changed Hoffman's life. It was full of science fiction books by Ray Bradbury, and Hoffman devoured them. She says: "Ray became my literary father. He was the one who taught me about the world." She also discovered a copy of The Catcher in The Rye on her mother's bookshelf. Salinger's book about a morose teenager influenced her greatly. Hoffman says: "I hadn't known that a book could speak so directly to a reader. After that, I knew what I wanted to do with my life."

Hoffman's memoir, Survival Lessons (2013), is about what she learned while enduring treatment for breast cancer. She says, "It was a letter written to myself reminding myself of all the things that matter, and all of the reasons to go on."

About writing, she says, "When I finish any project, it feels like a dream, and writing - whether it's fiction or nonfiction - is very similar to dreaming."