Pat O'Connor graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth in 2007 with an honors degree in history. His senior thesis contemplated the politics of historical preservation in small towns. At UMass, he studied Sylvia Plath under Professor Richard Larschan, and in October 2007, traveled to Oxford to present his work on Plath and Cold War politics. He currently works as the director of the Belchertown (MA) Teen Center and teaches classes on literature at Belchertown's Clapp Memorial Library