John Hildebrand, professor emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of Michigan in 1971, and a Master of Fines Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Alaska in 1974. In 1977, he joined the English Department at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire where he specialized in nonfiction writing and literature, the short story, and American literature.

Hildebrand is the author of five nonfiction books, including A Northern Front: New and Selected Essays (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 Reading the River: A Voyage Down the Yukon (1988), published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Reading the River documents a journey on the rivers of Alaska and Yukon. Hildebrand’s book, Mapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1995. Mapping the Farm documents a century of American agricultural and rural life. It focuses on William and Catherine O’Neill, an Irish immigrant family who settled on a Rochester, Minnesota, farm in 1880. Their grandson Ed runs the farm today, but none of his children farm full time and the future of the farm is uncertain. The Heart of Things: A Midwestern Almanac was published in 2014 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Hildebrand expounds upon life in Wisconsin using the calendar as the overlying structure. Finally, Long Way Round: Through the Heartland by River was published in 2019 by the University of Wisconsin Press and follows the many rivers of Wisconsin to discover stories.

Hildebrand received the Maxwell Schoenfeld Distinguished Professorship and the Excellence in Scholarship Award during his tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He was also 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. 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. He retired from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in 2009 after 32 years of teaching.