In the mid-80s, Peter Conners submerged into a life of writing, music, and exploration, and he hasn’t looked back since. He has published nine books of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry, and edited dozens of volumes of poetry and prose. His nonfiction books – Cornell ‘77, Growing Up Dead, JAMerica, and White Hand Society — have garnered him a reputation as a leading chronicler of the Grateful Dead, jam band, and countercultural community. His book, Cornell ‘77: The Music, Myth and Magnificence of the Grateful Dead’s Concert at Barton Hall, was included in the Grammy-nominated Grateful Dead box set, May 1977: Get Shown the Light, released by Rhino Records in May 2017. In 2022, his debut novel, Merch Table Blues, and his first prose poetry collection in a decade, Beyond the Edge of Suffering, were both published.

Conners regularly gives readings and lectures at universities, conferences, bookstores, art galleries, and on panels related to music, counterculture, poetry, fiction, and editing. His books have received reviews in such places as Rolling Stone Magazine, Library Journal, Penthouse, Publishers Weekly, Vice, Kirkus, The Onion, and the New York Post. The San Francisco Chronicle noted that “Conners writes like a poet and researches like a scholar,” and NPR Books likened his writing to “…the way music sounds when your surrender has no limit.”

His other books include the prose poetry collections Of Whiskey and Winter, and The Crows Were Laughing in their Trees, and the novella, Emily Ate the Wind. He is also editor of PP/FF: An Anthology. Peter Conners lives in Rochester, NY, where he works as Executive Director and Publisher of the award-winning independent publishing house BOA Editions, Ltd.