Biography and curriculum vitae

SUMMARY: Hoyt Rogers is an award-winning writer, translator, scholar, and internationalist; born and raised in the United States, he has spent much of his life in the Hispanic Caribbean and Western Europe, including the United Kingdom.
WRITING, EDITING, AND TRANSLATION:
Hoyt Rogers has published poetry, fiction, translations, essays, and journalism in a wide variety of books and periodicals. His first article in an internationally distributed review appeared in 1972, when he was still an undergraduate at Harvard. Since 2014 he has been a Contributing Editor for The Fortnightly Review, the online cultural journal based in the UK and France. He has worked with Viking, Basic Books, Knopf, and many other publishing houses. He translates from the French, German, Italian, and Spanish. His dozens of book credits include poetry and novels, editions with essays and notes, and translations. As a translator, he is known for his English versions of Yves Bonnefoy and Jorge Luis Borges; he also collaborated with Friedhelm Kemp on the first translations of George Oppen into German. With Paul Auster he published Openwork, an anthology of André du Bouchet—and with Eric Fishman, an additional reader, Outside. With guidance from Mathilde Bonnefoy, he translated Together Still, Yves Bonnefoy's final poetry collection. As to his own poetry, Hoyt Rogers has published two books: the early chapbook Witnesses (1986), and the fully-fledged work Thresholds (2023). Lately, he has concentrated on writing novels: most notably, the ample volumes of The Caribbean Trilogy.
CRITICAL RECEPTION AND REPRESENTATION:
Hoyt Rogers’s recent book of poems, Thresholds, garnered advance praise from five distinguished poets. His novel Sailing to Noon (Book One of The Caribbean Trilogy) was endorsed by four acclaimed writers—including Edmund White and Siri Hustvedt; it was enthusiastically recommended by Kirkus Reviews, and won an NYCBB Distinguished Favorite Award. His translation of Yves Bonnefoy’s Rome, 1630 was recognized by the 2021 Translation Prize of the French-American Foundation. Hoyt Rogers has received critical attention from such publications as The New Yorker, Books & Culture, PN Review, The Arts Fuse, World Literature Today, the Times Literary Supplement, the New York Review of Books, the Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the Library Journal, The Quarterly Conversation, Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France, The French Review, The Modern Language Review, Publishers Weekly, The Hudson Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and The Times Sunday Book Review, among many others. On various occasions he has been represented by the New York literary agents Amy Daunis Bernstein, Peter Bernstein, and Carol Mann.
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS:
Midnight at Sea, a novel (book two of The Caribbean Trilogy) by Hoyt Rogers (with guidance from Artemisia Vento and Frank Báez) (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2026).
"Colors," fifteen poems from Colors by Hoyt Rogers, with an introduction (spoKe 11, 2025).
In preparation: Maker, a chapbook of poems, Return to Day, a novel (book three of The Caribbean Trilogy); Mirages, new poems; Heard in Art, ekphrastic poems; Arion, collected essays on literature and art; Colors, new poems; and The Caribbean Farewell, a fictional memoir.
RECENT BOOKS (INCLUDING PORTFOLIOS AND ANTHOLOGIES):
Canvases, prose-poems in color by Hoyt Rogers (Mudlark Chapbooks Online, 2024).
Will: Shakespearian Sonnets (and New Shakespearian Sonnets) by Marco Simonelli, translated and with an afterword by Hoyt Rogers (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2024).
The Wandering Life and Another Era of Writing by Yves Bonnefoy, translated and with an afterword by Hoyt Rogers (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2024).
Sailing to Noon, a novel (book one of The Caribbean Trilogy) by Hoyt Rogers (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2024).
Thresholds, poems by Hoyt Rogers (MadHat Press, 2023).
Seven New Poems by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2023).
A Portfolio of Selected Poems by Yves Bonnefoy, translated and with an essay by Hoyt Rogers (Plume Poetry, 2023).
Will: 24 Sonnets by Marco Simonelli, translated and with a foreword by Hoyt Rogers (Mudlark Chapbooks Online, 2022).
“The Invocation to Sleep in French Love Poetry (1599-1611),” an article by Hoyt Rogers in Literature Is Comparative (a Festschrift for Roy Rosenstein, Mediévales 70, 2021).
Heard in Caravaggio, three poems by Hoyt Rogers with a recording and a note (Plume Poetry, 2021).
Rome, 1630: The Horizon of the Early Baroque and Five Essays on Seventeenth Century Art by Yves Bonnefoy, edited, translated, and with an afterword by Hoyt Rogers (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2020).
Heard in Vermeer, five poems and an essay by Hoyt Rogers (Mudlark Posters, 2020).
Outside: Poetry and Prose by André du Bouchet, edited, translated, and presented by Eric Fishman and Hoyt Rogers (Bitter Oleander Press, 2019).                                                                                                                                   The Yves Bonnefoy Reader, edited by John Naughton and Stephen Romer; volume two, Critical Prose, translations of Yves Bonnefoy by Hoyt Rogers et al. (Fyfield Books, Carcanet Press, 2019).
Tintoretto and Venice, a portfolio of essays written, edited, or translated by Hoyt Rogers; with Heard in Tintoretto, four poems by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2019).
Heard in Claesz, three poems and an essay by Hoyt Rogers (Plume Poetry, 2019)
EARLIER BOOKS (INCLUDING PORTFOLIOS AND ANTHOLOGIES):
Together Still by Yves Bonnefoy, translated (with guidance from Mathilde Bonnefoy) and with an afterword by Hoyt Rogers (Seagull Books/University of Chicago Press, 2017).
Veni Etiam: Naturalia et Mirabilia, on the artworks of Gigi Bon; "The Theatre of Memory," an essay by Hoyt Rogers (Lineadacqua Edizioni Venezia, 2017).
The Yves Bonnefoy Reader, edited by Anthony Rudolf, John Naughton, and Stephen Romer; volume one, Poems (a selection of verse and poetic prose), translations by Hoyt Rogers et al. (Fyfield Books, Carcanet Press, 2017).
French Poetry: From Medieval to Modern Times, translation of Léopold Senghor by Hoyt Rogers (Knopf-Everyman’s Library, 2017).
Suspicious Moderate: The Life and Writings of Francis à Santa Clara (1598-1680) by Anne Ashley Davenport, prefatory poem by Yves Bonnefoy, translation by Hoyt Rogers (University of Notre Dame Press, 2017).
A Bonnefoy Memorial, a portfolio of poems and essays edited, written, or translated by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2017).
The Plume Anthology of Poetry 4, edited by Daniel Lawless, translation of Yves Bonnefoy by Hoyt Rogers (MadHat Press, 2016).
Telegrams from the City Under Siege: Poems and Stories by Marco Genovesi, translated from the Italian by Hoyt Rogers (Odd Volumes, 2015).
Openwork: Poetry and Prose by André du Bouchet, selected, translated, and presented by Paul Auster and Hoyt Rogers, introduction by Hoyt Rogers (Yale University Press, Margellos World Republic of Letters, 2014).
The Digamma by Yves Bonnefoy, translated and with a foreword by Hoyt Rogers (Seagull Books, 2014).
‘Recessional’ and Other New Poems, by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2014).
Patios de la Ciudad Colonial by Nelia Barletta, prologue by Hoyt Rogers (Egraf Editions, 2014).
A Portfolio of Poems by André du Bouchet, presented and translated by Paul Auster and Hoyt Rogers (Plume Poetry, 2014).
Last Night I Dreamt I Was a DJ : Poems by Frank Baez, translated from the Spanish by Scott Cunningham and Hoyt Rogers (Jai-Alai Books, 2014).
Two Dominican Poets: Frank Báez and Homero Pumarol, poems translated and introduced by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2014).
Venice Inside Out, a portfolio of essays edited, written, or translated by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2014).
Yves Bonnefoy: Poésie et dialogue, a Festschrift, edited by Michèle Finck et Patrick Werly, an essay (‘Le regard tardif’) by Hoyt Rogers (Presses Universitaires de Strasbourg, 2013).
The Plume Anthology of Poetry 3, edited by Daniel Lawless, a poem by Hoyt Rogers along with his translations of Yves Bonnefoy (MadHat Press, 2013).
New Italian Poetry: Poems by Marco Genovesi and Francesco Giardinazzo, translated and introduced by Hoyt Rogers (The Fortnightly Review, 2013).
Second Simplicity: New Poetry and Prose (1991-2010) by Yves Bonnefoy, selected, translated, and introduced by Hoyt Rogers (Yale University Press, Margellos World Republic of Letters, 2012).
Ciudad Colonial, Santo Domingo by Nelia Barletta, prologue by Hoyt Rogers (Egraf Editions, 2012).
Poetry, The Double Translation Issue (an anthology), translation of a poem by Yves Bonnefoy with an essay by Hoyt Rogers (2008).
The Curved Planks, poetry and poetic prose by Yves Bonnefoy, translated by Hoyt Rogers, preface by Richard Howard, afterword and translator’s note by Hoyt Rogers (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2006).
By a Slow River, a novel by Philippe Claudel, translated and with a note by Hoyt Rogers (Knopf-Random House, 2006; republished under the title Grey Souls by MacLehose Press, 2015).
The Yale Anthology of Twentieth-Century French Verse, edited by Mary Ann Caws, translations by Hoyt Rogers of Yves Bonnefoy, André du Bouchet, Guillevic, Philippe Jaccottet, and Léopold Senghor (Yale University Press, 2004).
Poetry 180: An Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, edited by Poet Laureate Billy Collins, translation of Yves Bonnefoy by Hoyt Rogers (Random House, 2003).
The True Life of Johann Sebastian Bach, a critical biography by Klaus Eidam, translated from the German and with notes by Hoyt Rogers (Basic Books-Perseus, 2001).

Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun by Leon Golub and Jay M. Pasachoff, stylistic editing by Hoyt Rogers (Harvard University Press, 2001).
Poetry, Contemporary French Poetry Double Issue (an anthology), translations of Yves Bonnefoy, André du Bouchet, and Heather Dohollau by Hoyt Rogers (2000).
Curriculum in the Postmodern Condition, a scholarly study by Alicia de Alba, Edgar González Gaudiano et al., translated from the Spanish by Hoyt Rogers (Peter Lang Editions, 2000).
Selected Poems by Jorge Luís Borges, edited by Alexander Coleman, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, W. S. Merwin, Alastair Reid, Hoyt Rogers, Mark Strand, et al. (Viking-Penguin, The Centenary Edition in Three Volumes, 1999).
The Poetics of Inconstancy: Etienne Durand and the End of Renaissance Verse, a study of Late Renaissance literature by Hoyt Rogers (Chapel Hill-University of North Carolina Press, The Romance Languages and Literatures Series, 1998).
Polibio Díaz, a critical monograph by Raoul Jean Moulin, Manuel Rueda, and Marianne Tolentino, translated from the French and Spanish by Hoyt Rogers (Serigraf, 1998).
Rutas de la Arquitectura Colonial en Santo Domingo/The Walking Tour Guide of Colonial Architecture in Santo Domingo, by Martín López and Clara Barletta, co-edited and co-translated by Hoyt Rogers et al. (Tele 3 S. A., 1996).
Poésies complètes d’Etienne Durand (1585-1618), edited and with essays by Hoyt Rogers and Roy Rosenstein, preface by Yves Bonnefoy (Editions Droz, 1990).
Creatures of Speech: Lion, Hunting, and Herding Similes in the Iliad by Steven Lonsdale, final editing by Hoyt Rogers (Vieweg-Teubner, 1990).
Witnesses, a poetry chapbook by Hoyt Rogers (Corripio Editions, 1986).
Choreography by George Balanchine: A Catalogue of Works, edited by Leslie George Katz et al., European research by Hoyt Rogers (Yale University Press, 1983).

Animals and the Origins of Dance by Steven Lonsdale, final editing by Hoyt Rogers (Thames & Hudson, 1981).
Rhymes of a PFC, a poetry collection by Lincoln Kirstein, co-edited by Hoyt Rogers and Harvey Simmonds (Godine Press, 1981; reprinted by Atheneum, 1987).
PUBLICATIONS IN PERIODICALS:
Original Publications: In The Fortnightly Review (multiple), the Seagull Catalogue, Plume Poetry (multiple), the New England Review (multiple), AGNI Online, spoKe, The Antioch Review, Eunoia, Bitter Oleander, The Dillydoun Review, Fresh Words, The Courtship of Winds (multiple), Off-Course, The Raven’s Perch, Axon, The Writing Disorder, New American Writing, The Voices Project (multiple), Mudlark, The Light Ekphrastic, Last Leaves, Water Wheel, The Summerset Review, Sonora Review, EcoAméricas (multiple), The New Arcadia Review, La Revue nu(e), Metaphorá: Zeitschrift für Literatur und Übertragung, International Poetry Review, Neophilologus, The Literary Review, Papers in French Seventeenth Century Literature, Isla Abierta, The Harvard University Gazette, and The French Review (1972).
Translations with Essays and Notes: In The Fortnightly Review (multiple), Semicerchio (with Chiara Elefante), Cerise Press (multiple), the Poetry Society of America, The Southern Review, the New England Review, Poetry, The Caribbean Writer, and the Cumberland Poetry Review.
Other Translations: In The New Criterion, the New England Review (multiple), The Fortnightly Review (multiple), the Seagull Catalogue (multiple), Harper’s Magazine, Words Without Borders (multiple), Mayday, New American Writing, Off-Course (mulitple), Samgha, The Yale Review, Plume Poetry (multiple), The Kenyon Review, World Policy Journal, The Spoon River Poetry Review, The Southern Review (multiple), Poetry (multiple), AGNI and AGNI Online (multiple), Poetry International, The Apple Valley Review, Southern Humanities Review, Tin House, Partisan Review, Critical Forum, Poetry New York: A Journal of Poetry and Translation, Nimrod:  International Journal of Prose and Poetry, Harvard Review, Internationales Jahrbuch für Literatur: Ensemble, and Cahiers Européens.
COMMISSIONS FROM AUTHORS (STILL UNPUBLISHED):
The Last Season, a screenplay by writer-director Philippe Claudel, translated from the French by Hoyt Rogers (2009).
Out of the Blue, a novel by the Cuban writer Orestes Lorenzo, translated from the Spanish by Hoyt Rogers (1998).
FAMILY BACKGROUND: Within an ethnically diverse context, Hoyt Rogers grew up in the countryside and small towns of South Carolina, among academics, farmers, art-lovers, musicians, scientists—and above all, readers. The ramifications of his family extend from the Carolinas to Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Oregon, Connecticut, Texas, Massachusetts, and Essex. The semi-apocryphal army of its members includes Julia Peterkin, Stephen Girard, and John Eliot, the early American linguist who has inspired many facets of Rogers’s lifework.
DEGREES AND EDUCATION:
D. Phil. (Ph.D.), Oxford University, Medieval and Modern Languages, (French and Comparative Literature), 1978 (Thesis Supervisors: Terence Cave, I. D. McFarlane, and A. W. Raitt); A. B. (B. A.) summa cum laude, Harvard University, Classics and Allied Fields (Latin, Greek, and German), 1973 (Honors Tutors: Wendell Clausen, Henry Hatfield, and Herbert Bloch; Poetry Tutor: Robert Fitzgerald); Diplôme du Troisième Degré (highest level), Institut des Professeurs de Français à l’Étranger, University of Paris, 1970. In Italy, frequent tutorials by Michele Casagrande (formerly Instructor at Erasmus University), 2011 to the present; in Germany, daily tutorials by Friedhelm  Kemp (professor, Ludwig-Maximilans-Universität) and Lilly Kemp (1976-1978); in France, weekly tutorials by André du Bouchet (1970-1971) and Yves Bonnefoy (1969-1970). Other university studies: Bologna-Forlí, Venice, Florence, Munich, and Columbia University in the City of New York.
MEMBERSHIPS, AWARDS, GRANTS, AND FELLOWSHIPS:
French-American Foundation Prize for Translation of Non-Fiction, 2021; 1984 to the present, member in good standing of the Harvard Club of New York City; Openwork long-listed for the Best Translated Book Award, 2015; Aston Magna Academy Grant, summer 1995; Oxford-Sorbonne Exchange Fellowship, 1976-77; Marshall Scholarship for Study in the United Kingdom, 1973-76; Magdalen College (Oxford) Research Grant in Rome, 1974; English Oration Prize (for the valedictory address, “A Regional Mythology”), Harvard University, 1973 (delivered before honorees Georgia O’Keeffe, Rudolf Serkin, Margaret Mead, and Robert Penn Warren; congratulatory messages from Robert Fitzgerald, David Riesman, and Fritz Hollings).
TEACHING AND RESEARCH:
In the spring of 2014 Hoyt Rogers addressed the Faculty of Literary Translation at the University of Bologna on the translation of poetry from various languages into English. In 2013, for the same institution, he evaluated a doctoral thesis on the influence of Shakespeare on Yves Bonnefoy. In 2010 and again in 2011, he was invited to speak at the colloquia on French and American literary translation at New York University and the Université de Lyon, along with Charles Bernstein, Mary Ann Caws, Marilyn Hacker, Richard Sieburth, and others. As Professor of Comparative Literature, Catholic University of Santo Domingo, from 1986 onward, Hoyt Rogers gave numerous seminars in Spanish on Rimbaud, Hölderlin, Whitman, Borges, Anne Bradstreet, Juana Inés de la Cruz, Petrarch, Baudelaire, Hawthorne, Dante, Melville, and many other authors. His lectures on Shakespeare at the Teatro Nacional, with weekly sessions in Spanish and English, attracted hundreds of participants. He assembled a large library dedicated to comparative literature; it has served as a resource for teachers, translators, writers, and researchers. In addition to his own courses, he has sponsored lectures by scholars such as Friedhelm Kemp of the LM University of Munich and Roy Rosenstein of the American University of Paris. These events were attended by leading cultural figures, including author and President Juan Bosch. During his postgraduate years at Oxford, Hoyt Rogers taught summer courses at the University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston.
INTERPRETING AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE:
Contract Interpreter in French, German, and Spanish for the Office of Language Services of the United States Department of State, 1979-2021. As an interpreter for public diplomacy and cultural exchange programs, Hoyt Rogers participated in well over a hundred projects for leaders in their fields from around the world, sponsored by the Educational and Cultural Affairs Division of the US Department of State. He worked with such figures as Vice President Albert Gore, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Galápagos Islands Governor Eliezer Cruz, Ivory Coast environmentalist Gnohite Gome, immunologist Anthony Fauci, artists Carlos Colombino and Enrique Zamudio, economist Paul Samuelson, Shuar-Achuar leader Miguel Puwainchir, chemist Mario Molina, playwright Octavio Solis, trans activist Vera Morales, poets Maya Angelou and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, filmmakers Souleymane Cissé and Godfrey Reggio, and many more. He also collaborated with MPs, MEPs, government Ministers, and a long roster of artists, writers, journalists, scientists, and other professionals from Africa, Europe, and Latin America. Thanks to his exchange activities on behalf of Native Americans, he was inducted as an honorary member of the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. In recognition of his service to the US Department of State, the Office of Language Services engaged him to appear as a speaker and panelist at all three of its workshops for new interpreters, from 2000 to 2014. He currently retains security clearance as a Person of Public Trust.
FILMOGRAPHY AND FICTIONALIZATION:
Actor in the role of Thomas, in Dólares de arena (Guzmán and Cárdenas, 2014), starring Geraldine Chaplin, based on the novel Les Dollars des sables (Sand Dollars) by Jean-Noël Pancrazi (Gallimard, 2006), filmed on location in the Dominican Republic; reviews in Variety, The New York Times, Colección Cisneros, and many other periodicals; distribution worldwide in film festivals (Toronto, Rome, Chicago, Cairo, among others) and through Netflix; Dominican entry for the 88th Academy Awards.
Actors’ assistant for The Island (Michael Ritchie, 1980), starring Michael Caine and David Warner, based on the novel The Island by Peter Benchley (Doubleday, 1979); produced by David Brown and Richard Zanuck, and filmed on location in Antigua.
Hoyt Rogers was fictionalized by Edmund White in the short story, “A Good Sport,” from the collection Chaos: A Novella and Stories (2007). Siri Hustvedt cited his mother’s maxim on old age in The Blazing World (2014). Paul Auster avowedly borrowed his idea of ghost-writing autobiographies for the conclusion of The Brooklyn Follies (2005). On Rogers’s late-blooming vocation as a novelist, Auster quipped: “You’re doing it! You’re well on your way to becoming the Grandpa Moses of the novel.”
OTHER EXPERIENCE:
Consultant for the web-based companies Community of Science and the Alliance for Lifelong Learning (a consortium of Oxford, Stanford, and Yale); reader in French and German for Maria Campbell Associates, and in French for Times-Random House Books; interpreter and translator of German for international law firms; correspondent for the online journal EcoAméricas; manager of ecological and cultural expeditions for the Smithsonian Institution, the World Wildlife Fund, Stanford, and Harvard, in Europe, Asia, the Caribbean, South America, and Antarctica; US Department of State Liaison for Arts America, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, and the International Theatre Institute, accompanying choreographer Bill T. Jones, the Jazz Trio of New York, theatre specialists, and visual artists on performing, study, and workshop itineraries in Africa, Asia, North America, and Latin America. On official assignments or on his own, Hoyt Rogers has traveled to some of the most remote places on the globe.