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Ernest Hilbert (born 1970) is an
American poet The poets listed below were either born in the United States or else published much of their poetry while living in that country. A B C D E F G H I–J K L M N O P Q *George Quasha (born 1942 in poetry, 1942) R ...
, critic, opera librettist, and editor.


Biography

Ernest Hilbert was born in
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States, and grew up in
South Jersey South Jersey comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of New Jersey located between the lower Delaware River and the Atlantic Ocean. The designation of South Jersey with a distinct toponym is a colloquialism rather than an administrative ...
. He graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor's degree in English literature from
Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
in 1993. He also received a
Master's Degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.
(1994) and
Doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
(2000) in
English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...
from St Catherine's College, Oxford. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "Dark Earth, Dark Heavens: British Apocalyptic Writing in the First World War and its Aftermath." While a student there, he founded the short-lived magazine ''Oxford Quarterly'' (1995–1997). After moving from Oxford to Manhattan, he worked as an editor for the punk and beatnik magazine ''Long Shot'' for one year, before serving as the poetry editor for
Random House Random House is an American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...
's online magazine ''Bold Type'' for several years (2000–2004) and also edited the print and online magazine ''nowCulture'' (2000–2005). From 2005-2010 he edited the ''
Contemporary Poetry Review Garrick Davis (born 1971 in Los Angeles) is an American poet and critic. He was Poetry Editor of ''First Things'' magazine from 2020 until 2021. Career Davis is the founding editor of the ''Contemporary Poetry Review'', the largest online arch ...
''. Hilbert has worked as an antiquarian and first edition bookseller at Bauman Rare Books, in the art-deco Sun Oil Building in Philadelphia, since 2003. Between 2012 and 2019, Hilbert taught at the World of Versecraft, the low residency Master of Fine Arts program in poetry at Western State University of Colorado. His classes included an intensive summer course on the practical art of the opera libretto, as well as courses during the year on the verse satire, dramatic poetry, history of the English language, studies in translation, and historical foundations of English prosody. Hilbert writes about books for ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', and ''
The Hopkins Review ''The Hopkins Review'' is a quarterly academic journal that publishes fiction, poetry, memoirs, essays on literature, drama, film, the visual arts, music, dance, and reviews of books in all these areas, as well as reviews of performances and exhib ...
''. On January 13, 2017, Hilbert started a
Dark Web The dark web is the World Wide Web content that exists on ''darknets'': overlay networks that use the Internet but require specific software, configurations, or authorization to access. Through the dark web, private computer networks can communi ...
poetry magazine called ''Cocytus''.


Poetry


Sonnets

In recent years Hilbert has composed in his own
sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's invention, ...
form described by Daniel Nester as the " Hilbertian" sonnet. Critic Christopher Bernard refers to them as "loosely formed sonnets, a form that Hilbert has made his own, proving this most classic of forms can contain anything the 21st century can throw at it." In his "Brief Introduction to Versification," which appears as an appendix to ''The Fortunes of Poetry in an Age of Unmaking'', professor James Matthew Wilson describes the Hilbertian sonnet as "a nonce form of the sonnet with the following rhyme scheme: abcabc, defdef, gg (two sestets and a couplet). While unmetered or only loosely metered, Hilbert's sonnets observe the boundaries of the little room of the sonnet marked by the rhyme scheme quite carefully." Critic
Maryann Corbett Maryann Corbett (née Zillotti, Washington, D.C.) is an American poet, medievalist, and linguist. She grew up in northern Virginia. She did her undergraduate work at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and graduated with ...
has written in ''
Rattle Rattle may refer to: Instruments * Crotalus (liturgy), a liturgical percussion instrument * Rattle (percussion instrument), a type of percussion instrument * Rattle (percussion beater), a part of some percussion instruments * Ratchet (instrume ...
'' that "Hilbert has made the limits tight in a new way. He's created his own Houdini-like set of chains to wriggle out of: a new form that's already known as the Hilbertian sonnet, with the rhyme scheme abc abc def def gg. It's a form designed to grate against the expectations of the reader who is geared to the usual foursquare quatrains in the octaves of the Petrarchan and Shakespearian sonnet forms." Critic and classical scholar Chris Childers wrote in ''
The Hopkins Review ''The Hopkins Review'' is a quarterly academic journal that publishes fiction, poetry, memoirs, essays on literature, drama, film, the visual arts, music, dance, and reviews of books in all these areas, as well as reviews of performances and exhib ...
'' that "the structural units of Hilbert's sonnets fall outside the usual parameters of octave-sestet... allowing Hilbert to put the conventional volta (or turn) anywhere or nowhere. The effect is to de-formulaicize and de-familiarize the sonnet’s traditional rhetorical shape, shifting the weight of emphasis off of argument and onto imagery and voice, an effect to which the distant mutedness of the rhymes also contributes." Several of his sonnets and other poems have been featured by
David Lehman David Lehman (born June 11, 1948David Lehman
at poets.org
) is an American poet, non-fiction writer, and li ...
on the Best American Poetry website. His poem "Ashore," which appeared in the ''
Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on ...
'' early in 2009, was reprinted by the Academy of American Poets for their August 2009 "Shark Week" feature. "Domestic Situation," "AAA Vacation Guide," and "Prophetic Outlook" are reprinted by the
Poetry Foundation The Poetry Foundation is an American literary society that seeks to promote poetry and lyricism in the wider culture. It was formed from ''Poetry'' magazine, which it continues to publish, with a 2003 gift of $200 million from philanthropist Rut ...
. Hilbert's unpublished collection ''Cathedral Building'', which combines a wide variety of styles and poetic approaches, has been a finalist for the Colorado Prize for Poetry (under the title ''Removal of the Body''), the
Barrow Street Press ''Barrow Street'' was a twice-a-year American poetry magazine founded in 1998 and based in New York City. The small journal published prominent poets and its poems have been reprinted in anthologies such as The Best American Poetry series. Some o ...
Book Contest, the Yale Younger Poets Prize, and the
Walt Whitman Award The Academy of American Poets is a national, member-supported organization that promotes poets and the art of poetry. The nonprofit organization was incorporated in the state of New York in 1934. It fosters the readership of poetry through outreach ...
from the Academy of American Poets. It also received an honorable mention for the Dorset Prize. Other books were finalists for the May Swenson Award, the Field Poetry Prize, the Vassar Miller Award, and the Richard Wilbur Award. Hilbert's poems have been published in literary journals including '' The American Poetry Review'', ''
The Yale Review ''The Yale Review'' is the oldest literary journal in the United States. It is published by Johns Hopkins University Press. It was founded in 1819 as ''The Christian Spectator'' to support Evangelicalism. Over time it began to publish more on hi ...
'', '' Boston Review'', '' The American Scholar'', ''
The New Republic ''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hum ...
'', '' The Hudson Review'', '' Harvard Review'', '' Parnassus'', and '' The New Criterion''.


Translations

In 2009, the Tollund Group, a Nordic translation firm, sponsored its first annual poetry translation prize. Two translations of Hilbert's poems were awarded cash prizes. The winner of the best Danish translation was Mette Bollerup Doyle, who translated Hilbert's "Outsider Art" ("Outsiderens kunst"). The winner for Norwegian translation was Marit Ombudstvedt of Vestby in Norway, who translated "Love Songs" (Kjærlighetssanger"). The judges failed to select a winner in the category of Swedish language. In 2010, four of Hilbert's poems, "City-Scape Gentlemen’s Club, Queens," "Sunrise with Sea Monsters," "Rakewell in TriBeCa," "Dusk in a Crowded Train Compartment, Regretting My Life," were translated into Czech and appeared in the magazine ''Souvislosti''. Hilbert's poem "Nights of 1998," from his second collection, ''All of You on the Good Earth'', was translated into Spanish as "Noches de 1998" in the program for a performance of a musical setting of the poem by Christopher LaRosa at UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) in Mexico City, May 29, 2018.


Collections

Hilbert's first collection, ''Sixty Sonnets'', was issued by Red Hen Press in early 2009. His second collection, ''All of You on the Good Earth'', was published on March 1, 2013. His third collection, ''Caligulan'', was published on September 24, 2015 by Measure Press, and was selected as winner of the 2017 Poets' Prize.
Rowan Ricardo Phillips Rowan Ricardo Phillips (born 1974 in New York City) is an American poet and writer. He is the author of the poetry collections ''The Ground'' (2012), ''Heaven'' (2015), and ''Living Weapon'' (2020), the non-fiction books ''When Blackness Rhymes ...
wrote that "moved by beauty, attuned to the sublimity of natural things, livened by paradox, coaxed into song by pentameter, Ernest Hilbert's rich new book covers more emotional ground than a reader has any right to expect."
Rachel Hadas Rachel Hadas (born November 8, 1948) is an American poet, teacher, essayist, and translator. Her most recent essay collection is ''Piece by Piece: Selected Prose'' (Paul Dry Books, 2021), and her most recent poetry collection is ''Love and Dread'' ...
wrote that the poems in the collection "fashion a stern, witty, and often poignant music out of seemingly unpromising elements courageously glimpsed, combined, or imagined." His fourth collection, ''Last One Out'', was published by Measure Press in 2019.
A. E. Stallings Alicia Elsbeth Stallings (born July 2, 1968) is an American New Formalist and Philhellene poet and translator. A fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, she was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow (the "Genius Grant"). Background Stalling ...
wrote in a review that "Hilbert is enjoying, mid-career, a new formal freedom, and with it, wider territory to cover, or perhaps vice versa," adding "here a certain amount of youthful edge and swagger has been worn away, but is replaced by mastery, depth, and mellowed sweetness."


Books

* ''Last One Out'' (Measure Press, 2019), , poetry * ''Caligulan'' (Measure Press, 2015), , poetry; selected as winner of the 2017 Poets' Prize * ''All of You on the Good Earth'' (Red Hen Press, 2013), , poetry * ''Against the Art of War'', with Henry Wessells (contributor) and Judith Clute (artist). (San Francisco, London, Upper Montclair: Temporary Culture, 2013), signed-limited fine press art book with aquatint etchings, sold by subscription * ''Sixty Sonnets'' (Red Hen Press, 2009), , poetry * ''Aim Your Arrows at the Sun'' (LATR Editions, New York, 2009), hand-sewn, letterpress chapbook


Music

In 2014, Hilbert began work as librettist for a new opera with composer Stella Sung titled ''The Book Collector'', commissioned by the
Dayton Performing Arts Alliance The Dayton Performing Arts Alliance is a nonprofit performing arts association located in Dayton, Ohio and composed of three performing arts groups: the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dayton Opera, and the Dayton Ballet and incorporated as a 501 ...
. The opera, which incorporates 3-D digital technology and a ballet, is a historical tragedy intended to accompany Carl Orff's ''Carmina Burana''. It premiered in May 2016. Hilbert also supplied the story and libretto for Sung's three-act opera, ''The Red Silk Thread'', a historical drama about Marco Polo set in the court of Kublai Khan. He has also composed libretti for Daniel Felsenfeld, and has provided lyrics for song cycles by the composer Christopher LaRosa. He has also worked with a number of indie rock bands, and recorded an album of himself and others including Quincy R. Lehr and Paul Siegell reading from his book ''Sixty Sonnets'', backed by several musicians, including a drummer, bassist, organist, and guitarist, as well as a full orchestra and harp,http://www.widgethttp://newyork.timeout.com/make-music/section/musicstudios.com/?p=77 released on March 15, 2013. The music on three sections of the album was written by Marc Hildenberger and Dave Young, both formerly of the band The Grayjacks. The music for the final section of the album, scored for strings, harp, and piano, was supplied by classical composer Christopher LaRosa. Portions of the album were performed live with Hilbert's studio backing band Legendary Misbehavior, supplemented by additional musicians from the Philadelphia band East Coastamite on March 16, 2013, at Fergie's Pub in Philadelphia.


References


External links


Author WebsitePoetry Foundation Page for Ernest Hilbert
* ttp://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2013/04/16/meet-poet-ernest-hilbert/ Ernest Hilbert interviewed by Marty Moss-Coanne on WHYY/NPR's "Radio Times"br>National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Out Loud Page for Ernest Hilbert
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hilbert, Ernest 1970 births Alumni of St Catherine's College, Oxford American classical composers American magazine editors American male classical composers American male poets American opera composers Male opera composers Living people Rutgers University alumni Writers from Philadelphia American male non-fiction writers 21st-century American poets 21st-century American male writers