Esther Lowell Hibbard (September 23, 1903 – 1999) was an American writer, educator, college administrator, and translator, based for much of her life in Japan.

She completed her undergraduate studies at Mount Holyoke College, and earned a master's degree in English at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

In 1944, she completed a doctorate at the University of Michigan,[5][6][7] with a dissertation titled "The Yuriwaka Tradition in Japanese Literature".

[6][10] She took an interest in the culture and traditional arts of Japan; she visited Shinto shrines,[11] studied woodcarving, and learned to play the koto.

[5][18] In 1973, Hibbard moved back to the United States, and lived in a retirement community for former church workers in Claremont, California.