R.L. “Pete” Peterson
Filed under: Authors
Pete Peterson's first national publication was "A Penny for Your Thoughts" in Seventeen Magazine when he was seventeen, and in Marine Corps bootcamp. This earned him thirty-five dollars and one hour of standing in front of his Drill Instructor's Hut, yelling "My name is Private Peterson, not Ernest Hemingway."
This sharecropper's son, college dropout and sober drunk, has written 5 books on salesmanship; his nonfiction has appeared in twenty-three newspapers, including the Kansas City Star and the Chicago Tribune.
His fiction has been published in 75+ journals and publications, including Dead Mule School of Southern Literature, Stoneslide Collective, Ravens Perch, Charles Carter, A Working Anthology, Collateral Journal, Twin Bill, Deadly Writers Patrol, and Annals of America, among other publications.
His After Midnight—A Short Story Collection (Pallamary Publishing), debuted in 2020. His novel, Leave the Night to God (Pact Press), runner-up for the Petrichor Prize for Finely Crafted Literature, was released in November 2022.
A short story, "The Cave", appeared in the 2025 issue of Willow Review Literary Magazine. An homage to grandsons, "Miles", graced People to Remember, an online publication. Club 86, A Hospitality Magazine, published "Stars in the Milky Way".
As a Marine, Peterson served at American embassies in three foreign countries—Tehran, Beirut, and Stanleyville, Belgian Congo (now Central African Republic).
Peterson served seven months in the White House during the Eisenhower Administration—with frequent face time with the president, who loved to recount his prowess on the baseball diamond, (as a first baseman) and talk fox hunting.
Peterson is fifty years sober.
He established and facilitated the first Read and Critique Writer's Group at his local library—helping many writers to become published for the first time. He conducts regular Writers Workshops at libraries and other facilities. Visit his blog.
Website: https://www.rlpetepeterson.com/
