Robert Hedin is the recipient of numerous honors and awards for his work. They include three National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships, three Yaddo Foundation Fellowships, two Minnesota Book Awards, a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship, a McKnight Foundation Poetry Fellowship, a Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowship, and a North Carolina Arts Council Fellowship.
Other honors include the Loft Poetry of Distinction Award, a 2001 Editor’s Choice Award from Booklist, a 2001 Book Sense Top Ten Poetry Book of the Year Award, the Nebraska Review Prize in Poetry, the Branford P. Millar Memorial Prize, and two Poetry in Public Places Awards.
In 1998, he received the Arts Leadership Award from the Minnesota State Arts Board for his writing and contributions to the arts in the state. In 2013, he was honored with the Kay Sexton Award for his lifetime contributions to the literary community of Minnesota.
He is currently the Honorary Poet Laureate of Red Wing, one of five city Poets Laureate in the state of Minnesota.