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Poet of the Week
Poet of the Week
Andrew Hemmert
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A portfolio of poems by an emerging or established poet alongside an extensive interview.
Andrew Hemmert
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March 2026 | Form: Monostich
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A good poem can light the way. At the beginning of each month, we open for a free mini contest.
March 2026 | Form: Monostich
funhouse
⟡
Farah Shah
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Blog
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Bob Hicok
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Curated picks and bite-sized reviews of the books we’re reading, and why you should too.
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On poetry, politics, spirituality, and more—criticism from and beyond the margins.
Interviews & Conversations
Poets talk shop, process, lineage, and everything in between. Literary dialogues meant to spark your own.
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Real talk on submissions, MFAs, book publishing, finances, and staying sane. We're here to demystify and uplift.
The Poet as Existentialist
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One definition of art: not this
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New Blog Post Title & Subtitle
New Blog Post Title & Subtitle
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Prizes
Eternal Fame & Glory, Anyone?
$5000 Poet of the Year Prize
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Eternal Fame & Glory, Anyone?
Poet of the Year Award
Searching for a poet whose voice promises one award-winning poem after another.
Award: $5000
March 1 — April 30
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Bob Hicok Fellowship for Poets
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A Year-Long Invitation
Bob Hicok Fellowship
For poets seeking time, guidance, funding, and a community that believes in their work.
Award: $2000
July 1 — August 31
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Can you write the most beautiful poem?
$2000 Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize
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Love, Faith, & Sex
Leonard Cohen Poetry Prize
Honoring poems echoing Cohen’s obsessions: love & loss, faith & flesh, devotion & doubt.
Award: $3500
September 21 — November 7
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Bob Hicok Fellowship for Poets
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Bob Hicok Fellowship for Poets
This poetry award is not for the single best poem but rather for the poet whose body of work we feel is or will be full of one award-winning poem after another.
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Best Young Poets Award
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Best Young Poets Award
This poetry award is not for the single best poem but rather for the poet whose body of work we feel is or will be full of one award-winning poem after another.
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Best New Poems Series
Submission Guidelines
Best New Poems Series
This poetry award is not for the single best poem but rather for the poet whose body of work we feel is or will be full of one award-winning poem after another.
Submission Guidelines
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Workshops
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January 1, 2025
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Our workshops bring poets into close company with accomplished writers and generous peers. We offer space to draft, revise, explore form, and learn the practical art of publishing. Each teacher brings their own method with the ultimate goal to make poems possible.
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January 1, 2025
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Poems of Tenderness & Fire with Chen Chen
How can a political poem also be a love poem? How can a poem of fiery outrage be, at the same time, a poem of tenderness? In between reading and discussing model poems, we’ll do some writing of our own (prompts will be provided).
with Chen Chen
April 25, 2026
12-2 PM EST via Zoom
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January 1, 2025
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Tarot, Divination, & Poetry
with Sophia Terazawa
May 23, 2026
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January 1, 2025
ONE-LINED POEMS
with Kimiko Hahn
June 13, 2026
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A poem by Bob Hicok
Bob Hicok
11 Jan 2022
•
5 min read
Latest articles
The Poet as Existentialist
Brit Washburn discusses poetry as the concern with the human condition
One definition of art: not this
A poem by Bob Hicok
Human nature
A poem by Bob Hicok
My Most Recent Position Paper
A poem by Bob Hicok
Love Poem
A poem by Bb Hicok
Calling Him Back from Layoff
A poem by Bob Hicok
Pedagogy of the Maimed but Luminous
On Chiwenite Onyekwelu’s “Lute Man”
Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
Flash Review
A Poet’s Coy Inventiveness
“Is It Beauty That We Owe?” by Janice N. Harrington
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Curated Reading Lists
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7 Poetry Collections to Read After Reading About Another School Shooting
Andreea Ceplinschi ⟡ Youth, grief & violence
All of Leonard Cohen’s Books Ranked
Karan Kapoor ⟡ Attempting the impossible
10 Summer Poems
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6 Poems We Seriously Considered Stealing Somehow
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Shannan Mann ⟡ Hot & modern
Previous
Interviews & Conversations
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The Poem Is a Construction Site
Stephen Gibson ⟡ Conversations with Ed Falco
Social Media and Reshaping the Creative Attention
Karan Kapoor ⟡ Conversation with Heidi Becker
Navigating the Borders Between the Past, Nature, and Ourselves with Patrycja Humienik
Phil Goldstein ⟡ On landscapes and diaspora
Exploring the Liminal Spaces of Self and Womanhood with Hannah Bonner
Phil Goldstein ⟡ Anguish, abjection, selfhood & solace
On the Edge of Memory and Place with Poet Trina Gaynon
Henry Cristopher ⟡ Intersections of poetry
Embracing Vulnerability & Craft
Karan Kapoor ⟡ Conversation with Marley Aikhionbare
Storytelling as Solidarity
Justine Payton ⟡ Conversation with Elly Belle
Love Poems in Translation: How to Love in Sanskrit
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Book Reviews
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Life on Mars by Tracy K. Smith
Flash Review
How to Be Perfect by Ron Padgett
Flash Review
In Time by Ethel Rackin
Detailing the Drift
A Review of Chaotic Good by Isabelle Baafi
Chaos refined
Mother Fur by Nadia Arioli
Flash review
Four Reincarnations by Max Ritvo
Flash Review by Emma Mott
Exodus by Gbenga Adeoba
The Controlled and Moderate Poetics of Gbenga Adeoba: A Review of Exodus by Gbenga Adeoba
Soft Science by Franny Choi
Flash Review by Emma Mott
The Universal Amplified
A Review of At the Louvre: Poems by 100 Contemporary World Poets, edited by Antoine Caro, Edwin Frank, and Donatien Grau
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Essays on Craft & Culture
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The Poet as Existentialist
Brit Washburn discusses poetry as the concern with the human condition
Pedagogy of the Maimed but Luminous
On Chiwenite Onyekwelu’s “Lute Man”
A Poet’s Coy Inventiveness
“Is It Beauty That We Owe?” by Janice N. Harrington
On Leila Chatti's Equinox
Finding words
A Resolute Sketch
Approaching the year with a decisive list of resolutions
So you want to be a writer?
Notes on discouragement, discipline, obsession, and the slow, necessary failure of becoming a writer.
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John Arthur ⟡ Restoring faith in poetry
Poetry of the Mages: Kay Ryan
Samantha Weisberg ⟡ Different forms of divination
Poetry of the Mages: William Butler Yeats
Samantha Weisberg ⟡ Mysticism & spell poetics
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Writing & Publishing Career
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Sweet Elsewhere #6: Hide & Seek Champions
Matthew Vollmer ⟡ Writing as an outsider
Sweet Elsewhere #5: And You, You Ridiculous People, You Expect Me to Help You
Matthew Vollmer ⟡ Inevitability of failure
Sweet Elsewhere #4: Just Missed
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Sweet Elsewhere #2: Wonderful Verse!
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From M.A. to M.F.A. to PhD in Creative Writing
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Aiming Beyond the Tenure-Track
Shannan Mann interviews Matthew Vollmer ⟡ Fate & future of the creative degreeer
Next
Poems by Bob Hicok
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Notes for a job description
A poem by Bob Hicok
One definition of art: not this
A poem by Bob Hicok
Human nature
A poem by Bob Hicok
My Most Recent Position Paper
A poem by Bob Hicok
Love Poem
A poem by Bb Hicok
Calling Him Back from Layoff
A poem by Bob Hicok
This is this
A poem by Bob Hicok
Sigh
A poem by Bob Hicok
Would You
A poem by Bob Hicok
Next
Editorial Updates & News
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2026 Updates
Submission Periods and Increased Honorarium
2025 Nominations
Poems and Poets Nominated across 6 awards
2025 Wrapped
Stats, Secrets & Surprises
2025 Updates
Things to look forward to in 2025
2024 Wrapped
Highlights of 2024
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