About the artist
Neil Hilborn is an American spoken-word poet and musician best known for merging slam poetry with recorded music, a hybrid style that has made his work stand out within alternative and spoken-word-adjacent rock circles. He rose to prominence through competitive poetry slams, becoming a College National Poetry Slam champion while studying Creative Writing at Macalester College in Minnesota, where he graduated with honors in 2011. His piece «OCD», a raw depiction of obsessive-compulsive disorder and heartbreak, became a viral sensation and remains his signature work.
Beyond individual poems, Hilborn built a career around performance and publication, releasing the chapbook «Clatter» and the full-length collection «Our Numbered Days». His recorded output, including tracks like «The Future», «Future Tense», «Static Electricity» and «Liminality», channels the confessional intensity of slam poetry into a musical format, often addressing mental illness, relationships and personal struggle with unflinching honesty.
Hilborn also contributed to the poetry community as an organizer and mentor, co-founding the Macalester literary magazine Thistle and coaching competitive collegiate slam teams, including a squad that finished second nationally. His writing has appeared in outlets such as Borderline Magazine and Orange Quarterly, and songs like «Me, But Happy» continue his exploration of vulnerability and recovery.