Bob Hicok (born 1960) is an American poet.
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. 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. He formerly taught at Western Michigan University.
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. 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) and Sex & Love & (2016) with Copper Canyon Press. His most recent book, Hold, was published in 2018 by Copper Canyon Press. 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.
Awards
2008 Guggenheim Fellowship 2008 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress for "This Clumsy Living". 2013 National Book Critics Circle Award (Poetry) shortlist for Elegy Owed
Bibliography
Collections
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)
Sex & Love & (Copper Canyon Press, 2016) Hold (Copper Canyon Press, 2018) Water Look Away (Copper Canyon Press, 2023)
Anthologies
List of poems TitleYearFirst publishedReprinted/collectedBlue prints2013Elegy owed Origin story2017 Man of the house?? The new math?? Peoria?? Remedy2021ROTC?? Elements2023Hicok, Bob. (April 24, 2023). "Elements". Granta. Online Edition.None of the above2025Hicok, Bob. (June 1, 2025). "None of the above". 149 Review. 1 (17)
Notes
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 "Poets Q & A with Bob Hicok", August 2005, smartish pace Poem: The Smiths, as I understand them