John Powers was educated in Melbourne at St. Bedes, Mentone, and then at Xavier College, Kew, where he matriculated. He was employed at his parents' Phoenix Hotel and later became involved in amateur theatre. Powers was for a time a book seller and owned a small publishing company. He also worked for publishers MacMillan and Penguin, and was a publisher for the Federal government.
Powers began teaching creative writing in 1976, and taught script writing and factual writing at Deakin University. He wrote ten for television series such as Prisoner and Possession. His television documentary First Tuesday in November (1988) has been broadcast in over thirty countries. Powers was a regular contributor to major Australian newspapers and magazines. In 1993 he was a Research Fellow at the Yale School of Drama. Powers also wrote The Coach : A Season with Ron Barassi (1978), Australian Sports Heroes (1982), Winning : A Book of Quotations for Those Who Want to Win and Go On Winning (1982) and Champions! (1982), a children's reader. His other plays include 'Hot Centre of the World' (1970), 'Pub' (1974), 'Shindig' (1975), 'Reluctant Rebel' (1975) and 'Second Story' (1990).
