About

Rob Hardy is a writer and scholar based in Minnesota. He holds a B.A. in Latin and History from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in Classics from Brown University. 

Rob spent the decade of the 1990s as the stay-at-home father of two sons, one of whom is now a licensed music therapist in Iowa City and the other of whom is a licensed occupational therapist in New York City. 

Teacher & Scholar

Rob has taught Ancient Greek and Latin as a Visiting Assistant Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College, University of St. Thomas, and Carleton College, and in 2016 was co-director of the Dickinson College Summer Latin Workshop. He produced an online commentary on selections from Bede's Ecclesiastical History and wrote grammatical notes for commentaries on Homer's Odyssey and Iliad Book 24 for Dickinson College Commentaries. His scholarly publications include articles on Vergil, the Catilinarian Conspiracy in 18th-century political writing, James Bowdoin, Susan Fenimore Cooper, Naomi Mitchison, and Kate Douglas Wiggin. He has also written entries for the online George Washington Encyclopedia (hosted on the Mount Vernon website) and the Encyclopedia of the Social and Cultural Foundations of Education, and consulted on a Gale reference volume on Richard Henry Wilde. 

Poet & Writer

In 2016, Rob was selected as the first Poet Laureate of Northfield, Minnesota. In that role, he wrote poems for civic occasions, hosted poetry readings, arranged poetry workshops, and promoted poetry in the Northfield community. He served as Northfield Poet Laureate until 2023. He is the author of a poetry collection, Domestication (Shipwreckt Books 2017), and two chapbooks, Shelter in Place (Finishing Line Press 2021) and The Collection Jar (Winner of the 2005 Grayson Books Poetry Chapbook Competition). He has published poetry and prose in New England Review, Ploughshares, North Dakota Quarterly, New Letters, Rattle, Minnesota History, and in many other literary magazines and anthologies. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and included in the Best of the Net. As a lyricist, he has collaborated with composer Alex Freeman on several choral works that have been performed in Finland and Estonia. He has also collaborated with the Theater and Dance Department at Carleton College on productions of Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis (translated, 2000) and Aeschylus's Oresteia (adapted, 2012). 

Civic Engagement

In addition to serving as Northfield Poet Laureate, Rob has served two terms on the Northfield School Board (2013-2020) and two terms on the Northfield Public Library Board (1996-2000), and currently serves as President and Rice County Representative on the Board of the Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council (SEMAC). In 2014, he was awarded the Northfield Healthy Community Initiative Making a Difference Award for his work as an adult advisor to the Northfield Skateboard Coalition in their efforts to get a skateboard park built in Northfield.