Christopher LaRosa’s setting of Ernest Hilbert’s poem “Nights of 1998” Headed for Mexico City
Composer Christopher LaRosa recently set to music my poem “Nights of 1998,” from my book All of You on the Good Earth, for a baritone accompanied by sinfonietta. The piece premiered on Thursday,… Read More
“Meeting Point” by Louis MacNeice
"Poetry in my opinion must be honest before anything else and I refuse to be 'objective' or clear-cut at the cost of honesty." - Louis MacNeice… Read More
Works Cited: A New Poetry Podcast
It's a gritty, downright underground project right now, and I hope it catches on. I'm told they have the entire first season recorded, so we have much more to look forward to.… Read More
Ernest Hilbert’s Poem “Haunts” on NPR’s Morning Edition
A recording of my poem “Haunts” aired on WHYY FM, Philadelphia’s NPR Station, 90.9 MHz, as part of a National Poetry Month feature on Morning Edition, hosted by Jennifer Lynn. It's a… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Writes about Books in the Wall Street Journal
I had a chance to review three new books about books for the Spring books insert at the Wall Street Journal. Check it out.… Read More
“Summer Elegy” by David Livewell
David Livewell grew up in Philadelphia and won the 2012 T.S. Eliot Award for Poetry for Shackamaxon (Truman State University Press). He is now at work on a second collection.… Read More
AoYotGE for National Poetry Month at the Cambridge Public Library
I was pleased to learn that my books were on display at the Cambridge Public Library in Massachusetts for National Poetry Month. I asked librarian Daniel Wuenschel to send a photograph, but by… Read More
“Celle Qui Fut Heaulmiette” by Wallace Stevens
“After the reader has admired certain lines because Shakespeare might have written them, he begins to admire them because only Stevens could.” - Robert Fitzgerald … Read More
“After Glynn Williams’ The Flowering of the English Baroque” by James Brookes
James Brookes was born in 1986 and grew up in Sussex. He received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors in 2009, and his pamphlet The English Sweats was published… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews Daniel Kalder’s The Infernal Library for the Washington Post
Of all the genres one might imagine, dictator literature, books written by or on behalf of despots, must be among the most curious and troubling. I review Daniel Kalder's book The Infernal Library:… Read More
“Scenes from a Storm: Valentine’s Day, 2018” by Olga Dugan
Olga Dugan is a Cave Canem poet. Her award-winning poems appear or are forthcoming in Virga, The Sunlight Press, Origins, The Peacock Journal, Typehouse Literary Magazine, Kweli, The Southern Quarterly, The Red… Read More
Hear and Watch Ernest Hilbert’s “Nights of 1998” Set to Music by Christopher LaRosa
You can now hear and watch "Nights of 1998" on a live stream here by clicking on "New Music Ensemble, David Dzubay director."… Read More
“Science Fiction” by Kingsley Amis
"He is an intelligent poet and critic, an effective journalist and a straightforward, honest writer of fiction which is both entertaining and firmly committed to traditional moral values.” - R.G.G. Price… Read More
B-List Trump Facts from Michael Wolff’s Fire and Fury
A few months ago, the book Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff, an expose of the Trump White House behind the scenes, got a lot of publicity. A few key dishy points… Read More
Ernest Hilbert Reviews John Y. Cole’s New History of the Library of Congress in the Washington Post
My review of a new history of the Library of Congress appears in today's Sunday Washington Post. Check it out. I notice they altered my bio slightly to make me a "dealer… Read More
“What’s Left of Apollo” by Jan Schreiber, adapted from R. M. Rilke
Jan Schreiber was born in 1941 and grew up in Fish Creek, Wisconsin. He received his BA at Stanford University, his MA at the University of Toronto, and his PhD in English… Read More
Monday Poets at the Free Library Featuring Catherine Staples and Ernest Hilbert
Parkway Central Library, 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103… Read More
“How to Write the Great Jersey Poem” by Danny Shot
Danny Shot was a longtime publisher and editor of Long Shot arts and literary magazine, which he founded along with Eliot Katz in 1982 in New Brunswick, New Jersey. … Read More
“Capgras” by David Yezzi
David Yezzi is the author of The Hidden Model (TriQuarterly, 2003); Azores (Swallow, 2008), a Slate magazine book of the year; and Birds of the Air (2013) , a Publishers Weekly pick.… Read More
Three Clerihews by Anthony Harrington
Born and raised in the Philadelphia area many decades ago, Anthony Harrington was educated in a local seminary where he was exposed to the Classics, Philosophy, and Theology, strains of which keep… Read More
The Rosenbach Presents Nosferatu, with Organ Accompaniment by Frederick R. Haas
The Rosenbach Museum and Library of Philadelphia is hosting a screening of the classic silent movie accompanied by the Wurlitzer organ (originally built to accompany silent films and now fully restored) in… Read More
Ernest Hilbert on Illustrated Dust Jackets in the Washington Post
We are cautioned to avoid judging a book by its cover, yet that is precisely what publishers hope we will do. Dust jacket illustration, which came into its own in the 1920s,… Read More
Books Read or Reread by Ernest Hilbert in 2017
I don't get to nearly as many books as I used to, but I still manage to sneak a few in. Here are the ones I got to in 2017. I'd love… Read More
“To Eros” by Alfonsina Storni translated from the Spanish by Nicholas Friedman
Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) is an important Argentine and Latin-American modernist poet. Nicholas Friedman is the author of Petty Theft, which won the 2018 New Criterion Poetry Prize and will be published by… Read More
“I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day” by Wizzard
Remember when rock was fun and weird? … Read More
“The Sculpture (To—)” by Bill Knott
"No modern poet I know shuffles together such tenderness of heart with such wild metaphoric play." - Billy Collins… Read More
Hear Afaa M. Weaver Interviewed by Ernest Hilbert Live at Fergie’s Pub
Ernest Hilbert interviewed poet, translator, and professor Afaa M. Weaver before a live audience at Fergie's Pub in Philadelphia on the afternoon of Sunday, November 19th, 2017. … Read More
“Spirit Boxing” by Afaa M. Weaver
It is the tightness in the gut when the load is heavy enough to knock me over backward, turn me back on my heel until my ankle cracks and I holler out… Read More
What Lurks Down There? Ernest Hilbert’s Dark Web Magazine, Cocytus
What’s lurking out there on the infamous Dark Web? A lot of unsavory activity and characters, to be sure. But poets? It’s already got a reputation for hiding the worst human activity,… Read More
“Mars Ultor” by Ernest Hilbert
"Just as the work of the modernists showed that the best free verse usually has something masterfully formal about it, Hilbert’s fine collection might serve to remind us that the best formal… Read More