Tomás Miriti Pacheco, a poet, essayist, and journalist whose work carried him from Columbus open mics to national publications, has died, according to friends and family who began sharing the news on social media the morning of June 17.
Poet Scott Woods was among the first to make the death public, saying he had learned of it directly from Pacheco’s mother. Woods, who had recently booked Pacheco for an upcoming show, said the two had hugged just three days before his death.
He described Pacheco as a once-in-a-generation talent and said the entire local writing community was struggling to process the loss.
Pacheco’s path into poetry began in Columbus, where, as a middle schooler, he watched the documentary Louder Than a Bomb and became fascinated with competitive slam poetry.
He later performed in Columbus City Schools poetry slams and at the open mic at Kafe Kerouac, learning from established local poets, including Sidney Jones.
That early scene eventually led him to the Kenyon Young Writers program, then to the University of Chicago, where he studied English and creative writing, and later to bylines in The Nation and PEN America, where he had been a Puffin StudentNation fellow.
Friends Recall a Generous and Restless Talent
Writer Hanif Abdurraqib, who met Pacheco when he was still in high school and later mentored him through the Kenyon program, wrote one of the most widely shared tributes.
He remembered Pacheco as someone who treated a poem or an essay like something with no real ceiling, capable of folding enormous ideas into just a few lines.
Abdurraqib said the friendship that followed changed how he thought about mentorship altogether, moving him away from the idea that it has to end once a young writer grows up, and toward a belief that the people who believe in someone owe them that belief for good.
After moving to New York, Pacheco found a second creative home at the Brooklyn reading series SupaDupaFresh, where organizer Adam Falkner remembered him as someone who lit up a room every time he walked in, just as comfortable in conversation as he was holding a microphone.
Writers including Caroline Rothstein and Zach Hannah, added their own memories in the comments, with Hannah writing that no young poet had earned more respect from him.
Back home, the Columbus open mic series The Poetry Cauldron, said Pacheco, represented everything the local scene aspires to be, pairing real talent with warmth and humor in a way people who knew him would not forget.
Details about Pacheco’s cause of death and funeral arrangements have not yet been made public. Family members and close friends are expected to share more information in the coming days, and members of the poetry communities in both Columbus and New York say they intend to keep sharing his published work as a way of keeping his voice present.
