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 2025 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At least one poem must be recent and unpublished.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.

We love cover letters and would prefer knowing whose work we are reading. 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.

Do not withdraw if work in consideration gets published elsewhere, please.

We will respond to everyone in November. The first ever Bob Hicok Fellow will work with us throughout 2026!

Your submission comes with a 1-year ONLY POEMS membership. We'll send you information about access alongside our decision on your submission.

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 2 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 $77 to all our published poets. This is per contribution and not per piece. 

This category is ONLY for published poems appearing in online or print magazines in 2025. 

Unpublished work or poems published prior to 2025 will be rejected unread.

The best poetry in the world isn’t just buried in books and drawers (I mean, sure, it’s there also, but like, not just there) – it’s also in the pages of lit mags alive and being printed right now! We want to recognize that. The only authority we purport to have is being people who love to read good poems.

Selected poems will be published on ONLY POEMS DAILY, our brand new Substack, as part of our "Best New Poems" feature.

Submissions are free. At the moment, we do not pay for reprints.

Send us ONE POEM only and indicate in the document where it was previously published and when (if possible, please provide a link to original publication). 

There's an optional $5 Tip Jar. As a fully volunteer-run publication, we’re always grateful for your support.

If you’d like insight into your work, we offer editorial feedback for a fee.

You may have one active submission in the “Best New Poems” category at a time. Once you’ve received a response, you’re welcome to submit again. 

You’re free to submit to other categories alongside this one.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please withdraw your submission immediately if accepted elsewhere.

You'll hear back within three months.

Submit one poem responding to a piece of visual art (painting, sculpture, photography, etc.) 

Ensure that you have the rights to use the artist's work for this purpose OR that the piece is in the public domain. Give credit in both cases. Please include either a link to the artwork (or upload a picture) that you're responding to in the same document as the poem. 

Selected poems will be published on ONLY POEMS DAILY, our brand new Substack and shared on our socials, where over 50K+ readers will experience your work.

Submissions are free. We pay $22 per accepted poem.

There's an optional $5 Tip Jar. As a fully volunteer-run publication, we’re always grateful for your support.

If you’d like insight into your work, we offer editorial feedback for a fee.

You may have one active submission in the “Ekphrasis" category at a time. Once you’ve received a response, you’re welcome to submit again. 

You’re free to submit to other categories alongside this one.

For example: Anna submits one poem under “Short Poem,” one under “Ekphrasis,” one under “Poets Howl,” and a packet of 10 pages under “Fast Response” — all at once. Totally fine.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please withdraw your submission immediately if accepted elsewhere.

You'll hear back within three months.

Submit one poem, max 10 lines!

→ if it's longer we'll reject without reading, sorry).

Selected poems will be published on ONLY POEMS DAILY, our brand new Substack and shared on our socials, where over 50K+ readers will experience your work.

Submissions are free. We pay $22 per accepted poem.

There's an optional $5 Tip Jar. As a fully volunteer-run publication, we’re always grateful for your support.

If you’d like insight into your work, we offer editorial feedback for a fee.

You may have one active submission in the “Short Poem” category at a time. Once you’ve received a response, you’re welcome to submit again. 

You’re free to submit to other categories alongside this one.

For example: Anna submits one poem under “Short Poem,” one under “Ekphrasis,” one under “Poets Howl,” and a packet of 10 pages under “Fast Response” — all at once. Totally fine.

Simultaneous submissions are welcome. Please withdraw your submission immediately if accepted elsewhere.

You'll hear back within three months.