John began his working life as a sub-editor for the Dundee Courier & Advertiser in its Fleet Street office in London. After returning to Australia he was an editorial adviser to K.G. Murray Publishers, then feature writer and dance critic for Nation Review, and contemporary dance critic for the National Times. He also contributed to Cleo, Quadrant, and Art & Australia. In 1979 he organised and led the Art March through Sydney streets to coincide with the Sydney Biennale.

 His poems and short stories have appeared in Northern Perspective, Southerly, The Australian, Newcastle Herald, The Age, Adelaide Review, Overland, Mattoid, Phoenix Review, Fremantle Arts Review, The Canberra Times, Fine Line, Webber’s, the Sydney Morning Herald, Ulitarra, Weekend Australian Review, Eureka Street and Quadrant – online in Diagram 3.5 and OpenWide. Individual poems have been broadcast on ABC Radio National’s A First Hearing and Poetica.

A selection of his early poems, titled Paper Cuts, was published in the Medal Poets series by Lynden Publications in 1994.

He has reviewed books for Southerly, Northern Perspective, Mattoid, and Australian Book Review.

From 2003 to 2006 he was Poet Laureate of the International Corporation of Lost Structures, an internet based arts collective. ICOLS is no longer active but its web site lives on, archived by the Tate Gallery in London.