Event Description
GrubStreet, Mass Poetry, and Porter Square Books are excited to welcome renowned poet and writer Richard Hoffman for the release of his two new poetry volumes, Mundus et Infans and Each Child a Disappearance.
ABOUT MUNDUS ET INFANS
Mundus et Infans gathers poetic sequences written across decades into a sustained act of witness.
This collection gathers Hoffman’s long-form suites, sequences, and serial poems—book-length arcs of thought and feeling in which he explores myth, memory, art, philosophy, and history at scale. These extended works map the structures beneath experience: the stories we inherit, the archetypes we repeat, and the imaginative frameworks through which we make meaning. Together they offer a sustained meditation on childhood, catastrophe, and the lifelong labor of consciousness.
ABOUT EACH CHILD A DISAPPEARANCE
Spanning the years 1972–2025, Each Child a Disappearance gathers Hoffman’s most celebrated poems alongside new and previously uncollected work.
This volume includes selections from Without Paradise; Gold Star Road; Emblem; Noon until Night; and People Once Real as well as powerful new poems confronting grief, violence, ecological collapse, democracy’s fragility, and the obligations of witness. Many of Hoffman’s most widely taught and anthologized poems appear here, along with late work of profound spiritual and emotional clarity.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Hoffman’s eleven books include the memoirs Half the House, winner of the Boston Athenaeum Reader’s Award and Love & Fury, a finalist for the New England Independent Booksellers Award. He has published five books of poetry, Without Paradise; Gold Star Road, winner of the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize and the Sheila Motton Book Award from The New England Poetry Club; Emblem; Noon until Night, winner of the 2018 Massachusetts Book Award, and People Once Real. His other books include the story collection Interference and Other Stories, and the 2023 essay collection Remembering the Alchemists. His work, both prose and verse, appears in such journals as AGNI, Consequence, Harvard Review, Hudson Review, The Literary Review, The Manhattan Review, PN Review (UK), Poetry, Witness, World Literature Today and elsewhere. He is Emeritus Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College, and Nonfiction Editor of Solstice: a Magazine of Diverse Voices.
This class will take place in-person at our Center for Creative Writing in Boston's Seaport neighborhood.
Covid-19 Update:
GrubStreet's space will be mask-optional when Boston's Covid-19 Community Level is low or medium. When the Covid-19 Community Level is high, our space will require masks. Please check GrubStreet's Covid-19 page for the latest info on masking and Community Levels before visiting in person.
Space Accessibility:
Our space is ADA accessible with automatic door openers, ADA-compliant restrooms, desk and table spacing, braille signage, and elevator. Our classrooms can be equipped with ALS for hard of hearing individuals. We cannot guarantee a scent-free environment. For more accessibility requests, please contact our Operations team at [email protected] or (617) 695-0075.