Dr. Pablo Peschiera teaches mostly creative writing courses (especially poetry) and first-year writing, and he regularly teaches the First Year Seminar in the Phelps Scholars Program. In fall 2026, he will serve as the inaugural program director of Hope in Tuscany — the college’s first first-semester-abroad experience — in Siena, Italy.

Pablo has published over 100 poems, translations, reviews and essays. His poems have appeared most recently in Poetry International Online, but also in Copper Nickel, Shenandoah, and Gulf Coast, among many others. His translations from Spanish have appeared in Herencia (Oxford University Press, 2002) and elsewhere. He's also written lyrics for choral works in collaboration with composer and Hope College Associate Professor of Music Dr. Ben Krause. In 2024, Pablo gave the Center for Diversity and Inclusion 50th Anniversary Hispanic Heritage Month Lecture at Hope College. 

Pablo graduated from Hope in 1993 and returned to teach in the Department of English in 2008. Before Hope College, he taught at Grand Valley State University and the University of Wisconsin–Sevens Point.

AREAS OF Expertise

Pablo’s research and creative interests include 20th- and 21st-century poetry, hip-hop poetics, literature written by the historically marginalized, and the pedagogy of teaching creative writing. More recently, he explores community development through the practice of the arts, with a focus on how the practice of the arts (doing and making art) functions as a praxis that allows for human flourishing, community and character development.

EDUCATION

• Ph.D., creative writing and literature, University of Houston, 2005
• MFA, creative writing in poetry, Western Michigan University, 1998
• M.A., literature, Western Michigan University, 1998
• B.A., English with Spanish minor, Hope College, 1993

Selected Leadership Positions

• Program director, Hope in Tuscany first-semester-abroad experience
• Faculty advisor, Opus, Hope College's student-led arts and literature journal 
• Interim chair, Department of English, fall 2022
• Judge for the GLCA New Writers Award in Poetry, 2013, 2016, 2018, 2021, 2026
• Director, Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Program, 2010–2018
• Managing editor, Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Art, 1999–2003

Selected Honors, fellowships and Awards

• Character Forward research/creative activity grant in support of the faculty/student collaborative creative project “Art of Character,” Hope College, 2026
• Character in Courses faculty teaching fellowship in support of course redesign on the development of character traits, Hope College, 2025–2026
• Northwoods Writers Conference, 2024 
• Jacob E. Nyenhuis Faculty Development Grant to support a translation project, Hope College, 2024
• National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute in support of integrating translation theory and practices into pedagogy, 2013
• Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, 2001, 2002, 2003

Outside the College

As a child, Pablo immigrated from Lima, Peru, to the United States, settling in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He often visits his family in Peru. When not at the college he enjoys reading, gardening and exercise, and spends time with his partner, daughter, friends and two small dogs. He loves the change of season in Michigan.

Pablo has served as a volunteer coach for Hope's Men’s Lacrosse Team. President of Hope’s lacrosse club from 1991 to 1992, he played club lacrosse for 20 years. As a coach, he assisted in winning the 1993 Michigan high school championship, and he’s been a part of Hope’s MIAA championship coaching staffs, assisting in three NCAA tournaments. He was part of the NCAA Division III Region 5 Coaching Staff of the Year in 2024.