John Poch

John Poch (born 1966 in Erie, Pennsylvania) is an American poet, fiction writer, and critic.

Biography

John Poch holds an M.F.A. in Poetry from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in English from the University of North Texas. He was the inaugural Colgate University Creative Writing Fellow, and from 2001 to 2023 he taught in the creative writing program at Texas Tech University. He serves as series editor for the Vassar Miller Poetry Prize at the University of North Texas Press, and for ten years edited 32 Poems with poet Deborah Ager.

In 2023, Poch accepted the position of Professor of English and Creative Writing at Grace College in Winona Lake, Indiana. In this role, he has also served as one of the original organizers of the Winona Christian Writer's Conference.

Awards

Fulbright Core Scholar Fellowship (University of Barcelona, 2014) New Criterion Poetry Prize Donald Justice Poetry Prize Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Prize Colgate Creative Writing Fellowship The Nation/Discovery Prize

Publications

Poetry collections The Future of Love. Slant Books, forthcoming. Pietro Federico, Most of the Stars: An American Song (translator). St Augustine's Press. 2025. Cantiamo, Prendiamo Il Coltello (translated by Pietro Federico). Edizioni Ensemble. 2022. Gracious: Poems from the 21st Century South. Texas Tech University Press. 2020.

Chad Davidson and John Poch.

Criticism Notes on the Poet: A Little Book of Criticism. Measure Press. 2023. God's Poems: The Beauty of Poetry and the Christian Imagination. St Augustine's Press. 2022.

Chapbook

Online Works "Shrike", Videopoem "Sonnet on Time", Videopoem "3 Prose Poems", Hobart "The Ghost Town", Verse Daily "February Flu", Paris Review "Elegy for a Suicide", Poetry "Light and Dark", Plume "A prodigal", First Things "John Poch | Rattlecast 298", Rattlecast YouTube "Rock and Roll", Shenandoah