The Bob Hicok Poetry Fellowship is a year-long invitation to write with funding, education, mentorship and a community that cares. 

We welcome poets at any stage of their practice who are writing in English. One poet will be selected for the 2026 Fellowship. Five finalists will also be recognized.

In it’s inaugural year, this fellowship offers a $1000 cash prize, $1000 in workshop credits, a 1:1 conversation with Bob Hicok (our most favorite poet!) and a full year to develop a new portfolio of poems. You’ll also receive a lifetime membership to ONLY POEMS, along with space to share your work and process through a quarterly column, an in-depth post-fellowship interview, and a featured portfolio on our website and socials.

In addition to the fellow, five finalists will receive $200 in workshop credits, and lifetime membership to ONLY POEMS. 

We’ve published debut authors and Pulitzer winners, poets who work in libraries, bakeries, NASA labs alike. We care about the work and the spirit behind it. We can’t wait to read your poetry!  

➡️ SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Send us 5-10 pages of poetry.

Each poem starts on a new page. 

At least one poem must be recent and unpublished. 

Previously published work is fine otherwise — just let us know where it first appeared (either in cover letter or in the document.) 

Though submissions are read blindly, we love cover letters and knowing you better. You are welcome to share a brief note or statement on why you’re applying for this fellowship and what you’d like to get out of it as well as your publication history, if any, though that would not influence our decision. Please make sure that the document of your poems is stripped of any biographical information—use the cover letter field on Submittable for this.

We will respond to everyone at the end of November. The Bob Hicok Fellow will work with us throughout 2027!

Final Judge: Bob Hicok

Send us up to 10 pages of poetry.

We only accept previously uncurated work.  This means that yes — you can submit poems that have previously appeared across social media, blog posts, Discord channels, scribbled on your foggy bathroom mirror, etc. But if a poem has been published in a magazine or anthology edited by someone who’s not your mom, then no.

We encourage simultaneous submissions. Feel free to submit your work to all the wonderful places you think will be a good home for your poems. Do not withdraw your poems if they get accepted elsewhere — if we like your work, we’ll find a way to work with you.

If we have previously declined your submission, you can submit again whenever (we get it, we're unhinged poets too lol). 

Though our general response time is 3-4 months, in this category we'll respond within 3 weeks. Sometimes, if we are considering your work for publication, this might take 3 weeks in total. We might also email you separately in this event to request more poems. 

We offer $100 to all our published poets. This is per contribution and not per piece. 

Please refer to the following details related to the prize and our literary magazine: 

→ CONTEST GUIDELINES ★ LIT MAG ETHOS ★ TRANSPARENCY & DICLAIMERS ←

Send us a short story or essay upto 10,000 words in length on any topic.