Born in Pärnu in 1938. Fled from the Red Army with his mother to Germany in 1944, then to Sweden in 1945. Puide holds a Bachelor of Science in Social Sciences from Stockholm University.

In his literary work Peeter Puide published three novel translations, seven collections of poems translated from Estonian and translated poetry from Estonian for Swedish Radio, Yle in Finland.

Together with Marianne Ahrne he made a film about concentration camps in Estonia 1941–44.

Between 1981 and 2004 he published two collections of poems and three own novels in Swedish, among them Till Bajkal, inte längre and Samuil Braschinskys försvunna vrede.

He received Svenska Dagbladet's literature prize in 1981.