Prior to his move from Peru to Sydney, Australia, Rafael Moreno Casarrubios studied at a Carmelite college, Our Lady of Carmel, and in 1979 completed a BA at Lima's Catholic University with major studies in linguistics and literature. In 1985 he won an open scholarship to Complutense University in Madrid, Spain and was awarded a PhD with High Honours in Hispanic Philology.
Moreno Casarrubios has worked as a teacher, writer, journalist and literary critic. While working as a literary critic of a weekly magazine Oiga he published many articles on contemporary literature. In Australia he has worked as a teacher of Latin-American literature for the Workers Education Association. He has won several short story competitions. Moreno Casarrubios' first novel La Tristeza Segun San Antonio, was published in 1998. He received a second literary grant from the Australian Literary Board for the writing of his second novel, La Salud de I-Tanggi.
In 2001 Moreno Casarrubios returned to Peru, where he continues to reside.