Markus Hoffmann

Markus Hoffmann joined Regal Literary in 2006 and was made a partner at the agency in 2014, when it became Regal Hoffmann & Associates. He studied English and Russian literature and linguistics in Munich, Moscow, and at Hertford College, Oxford, and started his career in publishing in London in the late 1990s before relocating to New York City in 2004. He still betrays his transatlantic allegiance by insisting on the proper pronunciation of the words “basil,” “tomato,” and “herb.” If he ever writes a book, it will be called Why Puns Matter (and blame Shakespeare). While he stubbornly maintains that James Joyce’s Ulysses is the greatest novel ever written, he also believes that Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy isn’t far behind. He loves wearing sunglasses primarily because Joy Williams does, and wishes every book-to-film adaptation were as brilliant as Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock. Two books he’ll never get tired of recommending are Janna Levin’s A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines and Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments. Make that three: William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days. In addition to handling his own list of English-language and international writers of literary fiction and nonfiction, including unusual genre and graphic novels, he looks after the agency’s foreign rights. He’s obsessed with surfing, roller skating, and capoeira and plays the trumpet in the publishing jazz combo The Editörial Standards.

Country & Year Established

United States

Agent since 2006

Professional Associations

Member of AALA

AI Policy