About

Leonore

 

LEONORE HILDEBRANDT grew up in Hamburg, Germany, and moved to eastern-most Maine in the 1980s. She and her husband Robert Froese built a solar home, planted vegetables and fruit trees, and raised their lovely daughters. More recently, they have been spending the winter in Silver City, NM.

Leonore Hildebrandt is the author of the poetry collections The Work at Hand (Deerbrook Editions, 2018), The Next Unknown (Pecan Grove Press, 2014) and Where You Happen to Be (Letterpress chapbook, University of Maine, 2011). Her poems and translations have appeared in the Cafe Review, Cerise Press, the Cimarron Review, Denver Quarterly,  Harpur Palate, Poetry Daily, Rhino, Salzburg Poetry Review, and the Sugar House Review, among other journals. She was nominated several times for a Pushcart Prize. Winner of the 2013 Gemini Poetry Contest, she received fellowships from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Maine Community Foundation, and the Maine Arts Commission. Leonore serves on the editorial board of the Beloit Poetry Journal.

As a musician and songwriter, Leonore has performed locally in various ensembles and venues, most often as part of a folk duo with Brian Dyer Stewart. They play original music with a jazzy flair, and have recorded several CDs.

The poetry book Upward Spiral has been selected as a finalist in the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards for this year. Upward Spiral is an anthology of poems by four Silver City women. Shelly Barnett, Leonore Hildebrandt, Pamela Warren Williams, and Lynne Zotalis. Its theme “spiraling upward” speaks to the momentum of transformative thought, instilling both love and concern for our future on earth.
Leonore's collection of poems SOMEWHERE THE DAY BEGINS has been accepted for publication by Deerbrook Editions. The book will come out in 2025.                                                                     “A Gardener’s Rounds”  is out with Plant Human Quarterly and “While the Permafrost Melted,” with Cimarron Review.  “Child Soldier” and “Choose Compassion”  have been published by Collateral.  "Centers of Balance" by Plant Human Quarterly with an  Artist Statement"Shapeshifter" by the The Cafe Review. "Aunt Joni" by the Main Street Rag.                                                                                                              
Friday, June 7, 2024 -- 7:00 PM
 Leonore was one of three finalists for the 2024 Maine Writers and Publishers Award in Poetry for a selection of poems: "Lessons in Love's Grammar," "Lost Geographies," "Centers of Balance," "Reaching a Threshold," and "Looking Up the Word Bully."