Skip to main content

John S. Hildebrand, M.F.A. Emeritus

John Hildebrand

John Hildebrand is the author of three nonfiction books, the most recent of which is A Northern Front (2005), a collection of essays that previously appeared in such magazines as Harper's, Audubon, Outside, Sports Illustrated, Manoa, and The Missouri Review. He also wrote Mapping the Farm: The Chronicles of a Family (1995) and Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon (1998). His work has been anthologized in Barnstorm: Contemporary Wisconsin Fiction (2005), Best American Sports Writing 1999, American Nature Writing 1997, The Great Land: Reflections on Alaska (1994), and Nature's New Voices (1992). His work has been translated into German and Italian.

In 1977 Hildebrand joined the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where as a professor specializing in nonfiction writing and literature, the short story, and American literature. He received the Maxwell Schoenfeld Distinguished Professorship and the Excellence in Scholarship Award from UWEC. He has also been awarded a Bush Artist Fellowship, a Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship, the BANTA Award from the Wisconsin Literary Association, and a Friends of American Writers Literary Award.


Teaching Interests
  • Short Story
  • Creative Writing Workshop
  • Seminar in Nonfiction Writing
Education
  • M.F.A., University of Alaska (Creative Writing)
  • B.A., University of Michigan (Journalism)
Published Research

Books 

A Northern Front: New and Selected Essays. Borealis Books, 2005 (excerpt)

Mapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family. Alfred A. Knopf, 1995 (excerpt)
Vintage paperback edition, 1996.
Received BANTA Award from Wisconsin Library Association.
Read aloud on Wisconsin Public Radio's "Chapter a Day" – 1997
Reprinted by Minnesota State Historical Society Press- Fall, 2001

Reading the River: A Voyage down the Yukon. Houghton Mifflin, 1988 (excerpt)
Reprinted by University of Wisconsin Press, 1998.
Italian language edition, Sperling & Kupfer, 1995.
Received Friends of American Writers Literary Award, 1988.

Essays/Articles

"A Northern Front." Harper's, November 2003. pp. 67-76.
(Reprinted as "Die Front Im Hohen Norden" in GEO Magazine, March 2004
with photographs by Subhankar Banarjee, pp. 115-134.)

"The Appraisal." Harper's. November. 2001. pp. 56-63.

"Other People's Stories." Fourth Genre. Vol. 3, No. 1, Spring 20001. p. 174-176.

"Lost." Audubon. December 2000. pp. 40-46.

"Winter Wild Land." Audubon. January/Feb. 2000. pp. 88-95.

"Coming Home." Harper's. October 1998. pp. 72-80.

"St. Bridget's Church." Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. Vol. 9,
No. 1 , 1997. p.108.

"Beyond Whales." Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing. Vol. 5, No. 2,
Winter 1993. pp. 96-102.

"The Decline of Nature Writing." Manoa: A Pacific Journal of International Writing.
Vol. 4,No. 2, 1992. pp. 86-87.

"Harvest Republic." Outside. September 1991. pp. 67-68.

"A Sense of Home." Harrowsmith Country Life. No. 31, January 1991. pp. 16-17.

"The Deer in the Tree." Harrowsmith Country Life. No. 29. Oct. 1990. pp. 12-20.

"A Traveller's Tale." Outside. April 1989.

Anthologies

"Touching Bottom," Barnstorm: Contemporary Wisconsin Fiction. University of
Wisconsin Press. 2005.

"Appraisal," Black Earth and Ivory Tower: Working the Middle Ground. University
of South Carolina Press. 2005.

"Coming Home," Best American Sports Writing 1999. Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

"Along the Delta," The River Reader. The Lyons Press, 1998.

"Fences," American Nature Writing 1997. Sierra Club Books, 1997

"Beyond Whales," The Great Land: Reflections on Alaska. University of Arizona,
1994.

"Wading the Two-Hearted." Nature's New Voices. Fulcrum Press, 1992.

"Kaltag." The Truth about the Territories. Owl Creek Press. 1988.

"Fables." Alaska: Reflections on land and Spirit. University of Arizona Press,
1988.

Short Stories

"Touching Bottom." The Missouri Review. Vol. XII, No. 1. 1989.

Book Reviews

"Bitter Harvest." review of Victor David Hanson's Fields without Dreams. New York
Times Book Review. June 16, 1996.

"Lone Star Landscapes." review of Stephan Harrington's A Natural State. The
Wasington Post. September 6, 1988.

AWARDS/GRANTS

Maxwell Schoenfeld Distinguished Professorship – UWEC – 2001
Excellence in Scholarship Award – UWEC – 1999
Wisconsin Arts Board Fellowship – 1999
BANTA Award from Wisconsin Library Association, 1996
Bush Artist Fellowship, 1994
1st Place – Wordsmith Writing Competition, 1993
Lake Superior Contemporary Writers Series, 1990
Friends of American Writers Literary Award, 1988
William Sloane Fellowship in Prose. Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, 1988