Bob Hicok

Bob Hicok
Born	1960 (age 65–66) Grand Ledge, Michigan, U.S.
Occupation	Poet
Education	Vermont College of Fine Arts (MFA)
Notable awards	Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry (2008)

Bob Hicok (born 1960 Grand Ledge, Michigan) is an American poet. ^[1]

Life

Hicok is a professor of creative writing at Virginia Tech, where he has taught since 2003 with the exception of the 2015-2016 academic year when he taught at Purdue as a full-time Associate Professor. ^{[2] [3] [4]} He subsequently returned to Virginia Tech where he was promoted to full professor. He is from Michigan and before teaching owned and ran a successful automotive die design business. ^[5] He formerly taught at Western Michigan University. ^[6]

His first book, The Legend of Light, was published by the University of Wisconsin Press and chosen as an American Library Association Booklist Notable Book of the Year. Plus Shipping followed in 1998. His 2001 Animal Soul was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. ^[7] He has since published five more books, Insomnia Diary (2004) This Clumsy Living (2007) Words for Empty and Words for Full (2010) with University of Pittsburgh Press, Elegy Owed (2013) ^[8] and Sex & Love & (2016) ^[9] with Copper Canyon Press. His most recent book, Hold, was published in 2018 by Copper Canyon Press. ^[10] In 2004, after publishing four collections of poetry, Hicok (who previously had no undergraduate or graduate degree) earned an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. ^[11]

Awards

• 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship ^[12]
• 2008 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress for "This Clumsy Living". ^[13]
• 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Poetry) shortlist for Elegy Owed ^{[14] [15]}

Bibliography

Collections

• Bearing witness. Detroit: Ridgeway Press. 1991.
• The Legend of Light (University of Wisconsin Press, 1995)
• Plus Shipping (BOA Editions, Ltd., 1998)
• Animal Soul (Invisible Cities Press, 2003)
• Insomnia Diary (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2004)
• This Clumsy Living (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007)
• Words for Empty and Words for Full (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010)
• Elegy owed. Port Townsend, Washington: Copper Canyon Press. 2013.
• Sex & Love & (Copper Canyon Press, 2016)
• Hold (Copper Canyon Press, 2018)
• Water Look Away (Copper Canyon Press, 2023)

Anthologies

• Garrison Keillor, ed. (2006). "Calling him back from layoff". Good Poems for Hard Times. Penguin Group. ISBN   978-0-14-303767-5.
• Charles Wright; David Lehman, eds. (2008). "Oh my pa-pa". The Best American Poetry 2008. Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-0-7432-9975-6.
• Billy Collins, ed. (2003). "Alzheimer's". Poetry 180: a turning back to poetry. Random House, Inc. ISBN   978-0-8129-6887-3.
• Billy Collins, ed. (2005). "To Roanoke with Johnny Cash". 180 more: extraordinary poems for every day. Random House, Inc. ISBN   978-0-8129-7296-2.
• Bill Henderson, ed. (2000). The Pushcart prize XXX, 2006: best of the small presses. Pushcart Press. ISBN   978-1-888889-21-5.
• Bill Henderson, ed. (2004). The Pushcart Prize XXIX 2005: Best of the Small Presses. W. W. Norton & Company Limited. ISBN   978-1-888889-39-0.
• David Wagoner; David Lehman, eds. (2009). The Best American Poetry 2009 . Simon & Schuster. ISBN   978-0-7432-9977-0.
• David Walker, ed. (2006). American Alphabets: 25 Contemporary Poets. Oberlin College Press. ISBN   978-0-932440-28-0.

List of poems

Title	Year	First published	Reprinted/collected
Blue prints	2013	Hicok, Bob (Mar–Apr 2013). "Blue prints". The Believer. 11 (3): 49.	Elegy owed
Origin story	2017	Hicok, Bob (August 21, 2017). "Origin story". The New Yorker. 93 (24): 46–47.
Man of the house	?	?	Walsh, William, ed. (2006). Under the rock umbrella : contemporary American poets, 1951-1977. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. p. 163.
The new math	?	?	Walsh, William, ed. (2006). Under the rock umbrella : contemporary American poets, 1951-1977. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 163–164.
Peoria	?	?	Walsh, William, ed. (2006). Under the rock umbrella : contemporary American poets, 1951-1977. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 165–165.
Remedy	2021	Hicok, Bob (September 20, 2021). "Remedy". The New Yorker. 97 (29): 38.
ROTC	?	?	Walsh, William, ed. (2006). Under the rock umbrella : contemporary American poets, 1951-1977. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press. pp. 165–166.
Elements	2023	Hicok, Bob. (April 24, 2023). "Elements". Granta.Online Edition.
None of the above	2025	Hicok, Bob. (June 1, 2025). "None of the above". 149 Review.1 (17)

Notes

1. "Poet Hicok Reflects on Economic Hardships in Mich. | Online NewsHour | April 30, 2009". Archived from the original on 2009-05-04.
2. "New Faculty for Fall 2015 - College of Liberal Arts - Purdue University". www.cla.purdue.edu. Retrieved 2026-02-04.{{cite web}}: horizontal tab character in |title= at position 30 (help)
3. "Bob Hicok | College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences | Virginia Tech". Archived from the original on 2019-03-18. Retrieved 2026-02-04.
4. "Bob Hicok | Poetry Foundation". Archived from the original on 2017-10-22. Retrieved 2026-02-04.
5. "About Bob Hicok | Academy of American Poets".
6. "Bob Hicok". 19 September 2021.
7. Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine Poets and Writers Inc., Feb. 01, 2001
8. "Elegy Owed by Bob Hicok".
9. "Sex & Love & by Bob Hicok".
10. "Hold by Bob Hicok".
11. "Interview // Bob Hicok -". 2014-12-21. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
12. "Guggenheim Foundation 2008 Fellows". Archived from the original on 2008-06-11. Retrieved 2008-07-02.
13. Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry – Poetry (Library of Congress) Archived 2008-07-08 at the Wayback Machine
14. Kirsten Reach (January 14, 2014). "NBCC finalists announced". Melville House Publishing . Archived from the original on January 8, 2017. Retrieved January 14, 2014.
15. "Announcing the National Book Critics Awards Finalists for Publishing Year 2013". National Book Critics Circle. January 14, 2014. Archived from the original on January 15, 2014. Retrieved January 14, 2014.

External links

• "Bob Hicok", Caffeine Destiny
• Is a Pepper Steak a Steak Made of Pepper? An interview with Bob Hicok
• "Poet Hicok Reflects on Economic Hardships in Mich.", April 30, 2009, Newshour, PBS Archived May 4, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
• "Poets Q & A with Bob Hicok", August 2005, smartish pace
• Poem: The Smiths, as I understand them