Born in Melbourne in 1944, Burke's family moved west to expand the family business eighteen months later. In his teens, Burke read Kerouac and Ginsberg and other 'Beat' writers, and they gained his interest more than the Hardy and company he was studying at school. He started to ape their style in all he wrote, and published his first short story at 18. He has written on a daily basis ever since - stories, plays, poems, and - to feed wife and children - ads and videos, annual reports and press releases. Since 1990, Burke has taught creative writing and allied subjects at universities and schools all over Western Australia, read and compared readings from Singapore to Wagga Wagga. Multi-published, multi-talented and multi-voiced, his HI SPIRTS blog is a most worthy read.