Jon Corelis was born in California and grew up in and around Chicago, where he earned a degree in Classical Languages and Literatures at the College of the University of Chicago. He later took a doctorate in Classics at Stanford, and taught Classics and Humanities at Stanford, the University of California, and the University of Minnesota. After a subsequent career as a software specialist in Silicon Valley, he now lives in Wisconsin. His poetry and other writings have been published in print and on web sites in eight countries, and he has given lectures and readings by invitation in America and Europe.

He more recently has turned to composing songs and instrumental pieces. His music has been featured on the web site The Flexible Persona, has been performed in concert by the Wisconsin ensemble a very small consortium, by the New York State flute quartet Party of Four, by the Opus Chorale of West Virginia, and at Denison University's TUTTI 2019 Festival, and has been recorded by flutist Robin Meiksins for her YouTube recording project 365 Days of Flute, by clarinetist Emily Mehigh for her YouTube recording project The Miniature Month of May, and by flutist Beth Ratay as part of the Boston New Music Initiative's Prismatic Congruency YouTube series.

His web site is joncorelis.com