Peter Gelfan was born in New York City, grew up in New Haven and the New York City suburbs, and attended Haverford, College until he turned on, tuned in, and dropped out. He has traveled widely and lived in Spain, England, Florida, and Vermont. He co-wrote the screenplay for Cargo, les Hommes Perdus, which was produced and released in France in 2010. Found Objects, his debut novel, was published in 2013. His latest novel, Monkey Temple, came out in 2019. The first edition of his nonfiction book Hurling Words into Darkness: A Book Doctor's Dose of Brain Science for Writers was published in 2021; a revised second edition will be released in fall of 2022. He lives with his wife, Rita McMahon, in New York City, where he continues to write, work as a freelance book editor, and tutor writing in a public high school as part of PEN’s Writers in the Schools program.