Micah Hicks
Assistant Professor
CONTACT
Office: CPR 335
Email
Bio
Micah Dean Hicks is an author of fabulism, speculative fiction, and horror. He received his PhD in creative writing from Florida State University with concentrations in the novel and fairy tale studies. He also holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Southern Mississippi and a BA in English from Southern Arkansas University.
Hicks鈥檚 first book, Electricity and Other Dreams, is a collection of Southern fables and fairy tales. In a starred review, Publishers Weekly described the book as 鈥渁 compact, impressive array of the strange and the eerie, the alien and the endearing,鈥 declaring that 鈥淲ith striking skill in form and vision, Hicks woos readers into his wrangled worlds.鈥 Author Jeff Vandermeer wrote, 鈥淚n this unsettling, impressive collection, Micah Dean Hicks effortlessly mixes realism, the fantastical, and the darkly gritty to great effect. These unique stories feel layered, lived-in, timeless. I felt in reading them as if I was receiving an early glimpse of a unique voice, and an important one. I loved it.鈥
In his debut novel, Break the Bodies, Haunt the Bones, Hicks imagines a collapsing rural town drowning in the (literal) ghosts of its past. Every character, house, and object is haunted, the swarm of unhappy spirits dwelling on everything they've lost and weighing down the living with supernatural curses and gifts. Publishers Weekly called the novel 鈥渨ildly atmospheric and unsettling.鈥 Author Julianna Baggott described it as 鈥渁 stunning and profound debut.鈥 And author Maurice Broaddus wrote, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a haunting story that burrows under your skin like an insect laying eggs that hatch within you in the middle of the night. Hicks鈥檚 mesmerizing imagery kept me turning the pages and asking myself 鈥楬ow is this book happening? What sort of literary witchcraft am I witnessing?鈥欌
His most recent book, Vulture Gold, is a collection of stories set in a fairy tale South, loosely linked by characters and images that reappear throughout the book. In Vulture Gold, a wedding dress turns a reluctant bride into a flock of birds. Families put on their wolf coats before devouring one another. Teenage spirits are trapped in their hometown forever. Five brothers learn that they were once crows. The bank hires a man to go into foreclosed houses and kill their monsters. Two sisters find an oven that can resurrect the dead. Plumbers kidnap mermaids trapped in a city sewer system. A mockingbird sings a woman鈥檚 sins. A boy with a single swan鈥檚 wing yearns to fly. And watching over all of them is the queen of the dead, who sends her vulture men to scavenge the bones. Author Wendy Wagner calls the collection 鈥淐ompelling, powerful, unsettling, and gorgeous鈥攖his is must-read fiction from a major talent.鈥 Author Joe Baumann writes, 鈥渋n the rich vein of greats like Karen Russell, Aimee Bender, and Kelly Link, Hicks grants us entr茅e into complex ruminations on poverty and well-being, queerness, gender, and all of the bloody, beating moments that shape the human heart.鈥
Hicks is the recipient of a 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship, winner of the Calvino Prize, and received the bronze medal in the Florida Book Awards. His writing has appeared in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy, The New York Times, Gulf Coast, Lightspeed, Nightmare, and elsewhere.
At USF, Hicks鈥檚 recent teaching includes graduate-level fiction workshop, Writing the Novel, Writing Role-Playing Games, and Fiction I. Outside of USF, he enjoys tabletop role-playing games, deep, dark forests, and all things magical or spooky. You can visit him online at .
EDUCATION
PhD, Florida State University
AREAS OF SPECIALTY
Creative writing, contemporary fiction, speculative fiction, narrative games, magical realism, fabulism, fairy tales, nonfiction, and editing and publishing.