Michael Peyron was born in the Cannes, France. He has studied in France (at the universities of Bordeaux and Grenoble). His doctoral thesis at the Institut de Géographie Alpine, Grenoble's University, was on an Amazigh area in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco: "Tounfit et le pays Aït Yahia"[4]
Michael Peyron's publications include two volumes of bi-lingual Berber-French poetry and a collection of folktales in a Berber-English edition. Since 1985 he has regularly contributed entries to the Encyclopédie berbère
"Deux contes berbères dans le parler des Ayt Ali ou Brahim de Tounfit (Haut Atlas marocain).", in: Etudes et documents berbères 8, 1991, pp 53–62
"Isaffen ghbanin": Rivières profondes : poésies du Moyen-Atlas marocain traduites et annotées, Wallada, 1993, ISBN978-9981-823-04-4
Arsène Roux and Michael Peyron, Poésies berbères de l’époque héroïque, Maroc central (1908–1932), Aix-en-Provence: Edisud 2002
Harry Stroomer and Michael Peyron, Catalogue des archives berbères du "Fonds. Arsène Roux », Berber Studies 6, Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, Köln 2003
“Langue poétique littéraire : enjeux et mutations chez les poètes du Maroc central”, La littérature amazighe : oralité et écriture, spécificités et perspectives, Rabat, I.R.C.A.M., 2004 : 191-199
“Bringing Berber literature out of the academic wilderness”, Expressions maghrébines, Universistat de Barcelona & Florida State University, (Marta Segarra, ed.), Vol.4, n°1, 2005: 15-33
“Le paysage imaginaire de la poésie amazighe du Moyen-Atlas”, Linguistique amazighe : les nouveaux horizons, (A. Allati, éd.), Tétouan, Fac. des Lettres, 2006 : 224-236
Tassawt Voices, by Mririda n-Ayt Attiq and René Euloge, translated by Michael Peyron, AUI Press, Ifrane 2008 [2]
Great Atlas: Traverse Morocco (two volumes), West Col Productions (first published in 1989), ISBN978-0-906227-40-4
The Amazigh Studies Reader, 2008
Berber Odes, 2010
Mountains worth living for, 2019
The Berbers of Morocco: A History of Resistance, I.B. Tauris, 2020
^In Le Matin (Morocco) of June 27, 2003 Michael Peyron is described as the "grand spécialiste de la poésie amazigh du Moyen Atlas". Tribute to Peyron's achievements is paid by several Moroccan scholars in: Houssa Yacobi (ed.), Actes du Colloque Amazigh Day 2006 (Mélanges offerts à Michael Peyron), AUI Press, 2008
^Lonely Planet Morocco, p. 407": "His Great Atlas Traverse is the definitive text for the great traverse". Rough guide, Morocco (2001) describes it as: "Pick of the bunch", p. 389. In Hamish Brown, The Mountains look on Marrakech (2007), it is said to be "the most comprehensive and essential guide to the Atlas."