Bob Hicok, GPC 2003-2004
Born
in Michigan in 1960, Bob Hicok is the author of several critically acclaimed
collections of poetry. His most recent book, Words for Empty and Words for Full, was published by the University
of Pittsburgh Press in 2010. His other books include This Clumsy Living
(University of Pittsburgh Press, 2007), winner of the 2008 Bobbitt Prize from
the Library of Congress; Insomnia
Diary (Pittsburgh, 2004); Animal
Soul (2001), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle
Award; Plus Shipping
(1998); The Legend of Light
(1995), winner of the 1995 Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry
and named a 1997 ALA Booklist Notable Book of the Year, and Bearing Witness (Ridgeway Press, 1991).
A recipient of three Pushcart Prizes, a Guggenheim and two National Endowment
for the Arts Fellowships, his poetry has been selected for inclusion in five
volumes of Best American
Poetry. Before he began teaching, he worked as
an automotive die designer and owned his own business, Progressive
Technology. He has taught creative writing at Western Michigan University and
currently teaches at Virginia Tech, where he is an Associate Professor of
English. On the enterprise of creative writing, Hicok says "I love
writing, maybe most of all because it doesn’t matter, because poems don’t lift
bridges or make refrigerators shinier. The nakedness of the endeavor—just one
person, sitting at a desk, trying to express something they feel in a way that
will allow others into their mind—may be among the most human things we do. We
are the mouths of the world, and through poetry we speak." (http://www.english.vt.edu/graduate/faculty.html)
Additional
Links:
A selection of fifteen poems, the Poetry Foundation.
"A Night Out," The New Yorker.
The PBS Newshour, full text and audio for two poems, "In These Times" and "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down"; full transcript of "Hicok Reflects on Economy"; and an extended interview (video) and reading of "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down"
"Bars poetica," "Self reliance," and "The invisible man," Jacket Magazine.
"Becoming Bird."
"A Family Matter," Rattle.
"Is a Pepper Steak a Steak Made of Pepper?: An Interview with Bob Hicok by Matthew Siegel," from Gulf Coast (Summer/Fall 2007), reprinted on Poetry Daily.
"Bottom of the ocean," "Spirit ditty of no fax-line dial tone," and "Insomnia Diary."
"Reparations," "Making a List," "O Canada," "Consideration of Song," "The Religious Impulse," Octopus Magazine.
“Another Awkward Stage of Convalescence,” “By Their Works,” “Other Lives and Dimensions and Finally a Love Poem,” “Sudden Movements,” “The Maple.”
“Four Seasons and a Puss: A Love Poem,” “Ode to the Small Shit,” “Every Story is a Creation Story.” Triquartly Online.
Famous Poets and Poems bio and poems.
Poets.org bio and poems.