Peter Birk was born in Oakland, California, but was raised in Decatur, Illinois. He started writing in grade school, and never stopped to look back. He studied fiction writing at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois and at Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, where he was privileged to work with Robin Metz, Robert Hellenga, and David Foster Wallace. He emigrated to Iowa, and has worked a variety of odd jobs throughout Iowa City, but he has been writing the entire time, even through the period wherein he claimed he no longer wished to be a writer.
