Bob Hicok was born in 1960 in Grand Ledge, Michigan. His first book of poems, The Legend of Light, was published in 1995 by the University of Wisconsin Press, and he earned his master of fine arts degree from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2004. His work has earned him a number of accolades, including two NEA Fellowships, a Guggenheim Fellowship, eight Pushcart Prizes, and the Library of Congress Rebekah Johnson Bobbitt Prize. He has published eleven previous books of poetry, most recently Elegy Owed, Sex & Love &, Hold, and Red Rover Red Rover all from Copper Canyon Press. His writing has appeared in journals and magazines such as The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, and The American Poetry Review, and has been anthologized in nine volumes of The Best American Poetry. He is currently an English professor at Virginia Tech University.