For Peter Murphy, writing has been more than a career. It has been a way to understand the world, explore his own experiences and discover what he “didn’t know he knew.”
A longtime local resident, Murphy has spent decades developing his craft as a writer and teacher while building a body of work that includes poetry, prose, memoir and 14 published books and chapbooks.
Murphy’s path to becoming a writer was not a traditional one. Throughout his career, he has held a variety of jobs, including operating heavy equipment, managing a nightclub and driving a taxi.
His interest in writing began during high school.
Murphy recalls discovering that girls liked boys who were sensitive and jokingly concluded, “What better way to show a girl you’re sensitive than to write her a poem?”
The poems eventually became much more than a way to impress a girl. Murphy continued writing as a means of making sense of his experiences and learning more about himself.
Originally from Newport, a small city in Wales, Murphy was born to an American father and Welsh mother. His parents met during World War II, and after the war his father returned to Wales to marry her.
Murphy later chronicled some of his experiences growing up in Wales and New York City in his memoir, “A Tipsy Fairy Tale: A Coming of Age Memoir of Alcohol and Redemption.”
He moved to the Atlantic City area in 1974 after falling in love and getting married. Although he did not expect to remain in the area for the rest of his life, Murphy said he is glad he did.
His career has included a long commitment to teaching. Murphy taught English and writing at Atlantic City High School for 29 years. He also taught as an adjunct professor at Stockton University on and off from 1982 through 2020.
Today, Murphy continues his connection to Stockton through Murphy Writing of Stockton University, a writing program he teaches.
Writing has also brought Murphy recognition beyond the classroom. He has received six creative writing fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, a number he believes may be a record. He also has received multiple residencies at Yaddo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Millay Colony and other artists’ retreats.
For Murphy, one of the greatest attractions of writing is its simplicity.
“A sculptor creates with stone or metal or wood. A painter uses pigments and canvas. A weaver has fiber and a loom,” Murphy said. “I love the fact that I just have a pencil and a notebook. Sure, I use a computer, but that comes later.”
Murphy counts John Irving’s “The World According to Garp” among the novels that have remained with him over the decades. He admires the way Irving normalized the absurd and transformed it into art.
When he is not writing, Murphy said he enjoys reading, which he considers essential to being a writer. He also enjoys spending time with family and friends, many of whom are writers, and attending theater and dance performances. Travel is another interest.
Murphy’s publishing journey has been marked by persistence. He submitted his first manuscript to a publisher in 1974 but did not publish his first book of poems until 2005.
Since then, his writing career has continued to grow.
His recent books include “A Tipsy Fairy Tale,” published in 2024, and “You Too Were Once on Fire: Poems,” published in 2025. He also has a chapbook of poems, “The Buzzing of the Blue Guitar,” scheduled to be published this fall by a publisher in Sweden.
Looking back on his career, Murphy credits his success to studying the craft of writing, reading, learning from other writers and, most importantly, persistence.
For Murphy, decades of writing have demonstrated that success does not necessarily arrive quickly. Sometimes it comes from simply continuing to write, learn and find new ways to tell a story.
