Kitty Hoffman
Author
Kitty Hoffman, born in Europe to refugee parents, is a nonfiction writer. She is currently seeking representation for a book about the resonances between searching for her ancestor, the medieval father of kabbalah, and growing up among Holocaust survivors. She has a deep interest in the weight of history and tradition, and how we find creative ways to move forward.
Photo by Dan Demetriad
Kitty Hoffman
…is a writer of literary nonfiction, essays, and journalism. Her writing has been awarded or shortlisted by The Writers’ Union of Canada, PRISM International, Grain, Hunger Mountain, and the Dana Award in the Essay. Her writing has appeared in the anthologies Fault Lines, Still Dancing, Listening with the Ear of the Heart, and Celebrating Canadian Women. See her publications here.
…is seeking representation for a book that explores the resonance between searching for her ancestor, the early medieval founder of kabbalah in Europe, and growing up among Holocaust survivors. Read excerpts from her current project, find her related essay “The Chamber of Yearning” and follow her travels.
…is a blogger for the Times of Israel.
…is a teacher of creative writing. She has taught in a variety of settings including Concordia University, the Cuenca International Writers Conference, the University of Victoria, the Port Townsend Writers Conference, and the Victoria School of Writing.
…is a post-denominational and pluralistic Spiritual Director, working primarily with those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious.
…is a rabbinical student at a pluralistic seminary.
…has been an editor, communications consultant, and television producer and on-air host.
…has led planning for development NGOs in India and Canada, and national government training programmes.
Publications
Selected Essays
Reviews written by Kitty Hoffman
Journalism
Current Writing Project
“Don’t tell anyone our story,” my terrorized mother warned. Like all immigrant kids I was determined to master the cultural codes of life in a new country. But growing up with parents who were the only ones of their large families to survive the Holocaust, I also harbored a secret inner world of fear and dispossession. How, in response, a medieval kabbalist became as real to me as my grandfather, and why this matters, is the subject of The Chamber of Yearning: A Memoir of Ghosts and Ancestors.
My mother’s insistent stories of family destruction were overwhelming to me as a refugee growing up in Montreal with no family members other than my parents. To transcend the tragic legacy, to find continuity in the face of that total discontinuity of destruction, I set out to find traces of Isaac the Blind, my 12th century Provencal ancestor – and the father of kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism.
“We are all children of the chamber of yearning,” proclaims the Zohar, the poetic medieval classic of kabbalah. How we yearn – for connection, for family, for community, for meaning, for home. The Chamber of Yearning is my exploration of this universal longing through the Holocaust’s impact, and my journey through France and Spain to discover my ancestor.
Follow a record of my initial journey in this blog that I kept as I set out.
Explore the wider context in this recent essay.
