Biography Bob Hicok

Poet Biography

Bob Hicok is an American poet, born in 1960. He currently is an associate professor of creative writing at Virginia Tech. He is from Michigan and before teaching owned and ran a successful automotive die design business.

His first book, The Legend of Light, (1995) was chosen by Carolyn Kizer for the 1995 Felix Pollak Prize. This book, published by the University of Wisconsin Press, was later chosen an ALA Booklist Notable Book of the Year. Plus Shipping followed in 1998. His 2001 release, Animal Soul, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He has published two other books -- Insomnia Diary (2004) and This Clumsy Living (2007), both with the University of Pittsburgh Press. "This Clumsy Living" received the 2008 Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress.

His poems have appeared in such publications as The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review and The American Poetry Review, as well as four volumes of The Best American Poetry. Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008 and two NEA Fellowships, his work has also been reprinted three times in the Pushcart Anthology.

His works include the following: This Clumsy Living, 2007, the University of Pittsburgh Press; Insomnia Diary, 2004, the University of Pittsburgh Press; Animal Soul, 2003, Invisible Cities Press; Plus Shipping, 1998, BOA Editions, Ltd.; and The Legend of Light, 1995 University of Wisconsin Press.