Michael Hurley emigrated to Australia from England in 1952. From 1985-1998 he taught textual and cultural studies at the University of Technology, Sydney, and has been a Senior Research Fellow at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, LaTrobe University, Melbourne. In 1995 he was an Australia Council funded Writer in the Community at the AIDS Council of NSW and in 1999-2000 was a Commonwealth funded Researcher in Residence at the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, Sydney.
Hurley has spoken at the Sydney, Melbourne (1999)and Perth (2000) Writers Festivals, as well as at Feast (2000), Adelaide's gay and lesbian festival and at Mardi Gras where he launched A Guide to Gay and Lesbian Writing in Australia (1996). He is co-author with Jan Hutchinson of TwoTiming. Sex, Writing and the Writing of Sex (1991)and was a co-judge of the Outrage Short Story competition in 1995 & 1996.