Peter Jay Shippy was born in Niagara Falls and raised on his family’s apple farm on the shore of Lake Ontario. He earned a BFA from Emerson College and an MFA from the University of Iowa.

A recipient of a Gertrude Stein Award, the Iowa Poetry Prize, and the Diagram Prize for the Essay, he has received fellowships in drama and poetry from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts. His poetry has twice appeared in The Best American Poetry and has been adapted into a short film (see below).

Shippy’s books include Thieves' Latin (University of Iowa Press, 2003), Alphaville (BlazeVOX BOOKS, 2006), How to Build the Ghost in Your Attic (Rose Metal Press, 2007), A Spell of Songs (Saturnalia Books, 2013), and Kaputniks (Saturnalia Books, 2021).

He lives in Boston with his wife and daughters and teaches at Emerson College.