Norbert Hirschhorn is a physician specializing in the public health of women, children and communities in the USA and the Third World. In 1993 he was commended by President Bill Clinton as an “American Health Hero”. His work has been recognized by awards from the Dana Foundation and the Linda and Kenneth Pollin Foundation. For details see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norbert_Hirschhorn

In 1994 Hirschhorn received a Master in Fine Arts degree from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

His first pamphlet, Renewal Soup, and his first full collection, A Cracked River, were published by Slow Dancer Press, London, UK, in 1996 and 1999. Two pamphlets followed resulting from competitions: The Empress of Certain from Poet’s Corner Press, Stockton, California, in 2005; and Sailing with the Pleiades from Main Street Rag Publishing Co, Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2007. A fourth pamphlet, The Terrible Crystal, was published in 2008 by Hearing Eye Press, London, UK.

A first full collection, A Cracked River was published by Slow Dancer Press in 1999. A second collection, To Sing Away the Darkest Days — Poems Re-imagined from Yiddish Folksongs — was published in 2013 by Holland Park Press, London. His third and fourth collections (Stone. Bread. Salt. and Over the Edge) came also from Holland Park Press in 2018 and 2023. A fifth collection, Once Upon a Time in Aleppo is a bilingual set of poems by Syrian poet Fouad M. Fouad, co-translated with the poet, published by Hippocrates Press (UK), October 2020. (Two collections were published in Lebanon — Mourning in the Presence of a Corpse and Monastery of the Moon, 2008 and 2012.)

Hirschhorn’s poems have also appeared in several anthologies, including Vital Signs – The UCLA Collection of Physicians’ Poetry (1990); Blood and Bone (University of Iowa Press, 1998); Primary Care: More Poems by Physicians (University of Iowa Press 2006); Poems for a Liminal Age (SPM Publications, 2015); The Poet’s Quest for God (Eyewear Publishing Ltd, March 2016); The Traveler’s Vade Mecum (Red Hen Press, 2016).

His poems have won prizes in several UK competitions, Essex Poetry Society, Ware Poets, Manchester Cathedral, Prospect Burma International competition, Poetry Kit Nottingham Open Poetry Competition, Frogmore Poetry Prize, Stephen Spender prize for Translation.  In the US, a finalist in: the Chester H. Jones Foundation National Poetry Competition, the Southern Poetry Review Competition, the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Awards, Main Street Rag Annual Chapbook Competition.