Henry Hicks IV (he/him) is an American writer, organizer, and historian whose work centers the people and communities realizing new visions of what our world can be. 

His writing on politics, history, and literature has appeared in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, The Nation, Mother Jones, In These Times, The Drift, and The Brooklyn Rail, among others. His fiction has been supported by fellowships and residencies from Lambda Literary, McCormack Writing Center (formerly Tin House), The Kenyon Review Writers’ Workshop, Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing, the Sundress Academy for the Arts, and The Porch. He is currently seeking representation for his debut novel.

Henry has worked for human rights nonprofits including Human Rights Watch and PEN America, and served as a communications and political strategy advisor to progressive leaders and initiatives such as Staffers for Ceasefire and The Primary Objective. Most recently, designed and ran an experimental relational community engagement program operating in Sun Belt battleground states during the 2024 election cycle. Henry has worked on electoral campaigns at the local, state, and national levels. He consulted with Relentless, a relational-first organizing firm on the 2022 U.S. Senate race in Pennsylvania  and got his organizing start in Iowa on Vice President Kamala Harris’s 2019 presidential campaign.

He has delivered remarks, facilitated trainings, and led workshops for audiences at The Brookings Institution, The Strand, the National Press Club, Indivisible, the Oxford Writers’ House, St. John’s College, and more. 

Henry is currently pursuing an MPhil in U.S. History at the University of Oxford, where his research focuses on Reconstruction, civic imagination, and the past, present, and future of multiracial democracy. He holds a B.A. from Oberlin College in creative writing and comparative American studies. He is a Harry S. Truman Scholar.