Peter Oliva writes mostly fiction. To support that habit, he has worked as a cook's flunkie, a Santa Claus (in Japan), and a dog trainer. In 1994 he opened a bookstore, called Pages on Kensington, where he ran a reading series and hosted 600 author events in six years before selling that little sweat-shop in 2000. He was a Writer-in-Residence in Calgary's Markin-Flanagan Distinguished Writers Programme. Between 2008 and 2010, he taught martial arts to his writing students at the Fernie Writers' Conference. He was a founder of Wordfest (that festival of writers), Poetry in Motion (a scheme to put poetry on Canadian buses and C-trains), and ExLibris (an ill-fated series of pajamma readings held at various Calgary Public Libraries).
One of his stories was turned into a short film, called Belly Button Broth, in 2008. It was shot in Bologna by great Giuseppe Gagliardi.
Peter Oliva lives in Calgary with his wife and daughter.