Ep. 633: Author, Playwright, and Rabbit Room Publisher Pete Peterson

Today we’re talking with Pete Peterson, a man who has spent much of his career at the intersection of story, faith, theater, and the arts.

Pete is a playwright, publisher, and one of the central figures in The Rabbit Room since its earliest days, working with his brother Andrew Peterson to turn a small online community into a thriving center for books, music, theater, and other arts. The Rabbit Room has grown from a small experiment in creative community into a remarkable organization encompassing books, music, theater, podcasts, conferences, and North Wind Manor. Pete served for seven years as its executive director, helping guide that growth, and today serves as publisher of Rabbit Room Press and artistic director of Rabbit Room Theatre.

But Pete is also a storyteller in his own right. Writing under the name A. S. Peterson, he is the author of The Fiddler’s Gun and Fiddler’s Green, and he has written extensively for the stage. His plays include The Battle of Franklin, a Civil War musical; an acclaimed adaptation of Frankenstein; and The Hiding Place, based on Corrie ten Boom’s story. His work as a playwright has earned both critical recognition and awards.

Perhaps nowhere, though, has Pete’s particular combination of literary taste, artistic ambition, and entrepreneurial nerve been more visible than at Rabbit Room Press. The press has built a reputation for publishing beautiful, distinctive books that don’t fit neatly into conventional categories—and in 2026 it struck publishing gold with British poet and priest Malcolm Guite’s Galahad and the Grail. The book became Rabbit Room Press’s biggest launch ever, reaching the Top 50 of Amazon’s overall books chart, selling out at Amazon, and later winning the 2026 Parnassus Prize.

So today, we’re going to talk about books, publishing, theater, and what it takes to convince modern readers that great literature still matters.

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