Craig Powell graduated in Medicine from the University of Sydney in 1964 and from the New South Wales Institute of Psychiatry in 1970. He later went on to run a private psychotherapy practice in Sydney. He spent the years between 1972 and 1982 residing in Canada.
Powell contributed lyrics to a musical score by Moya Henderson, Nembutal Rock (1974). As well as the awards listed on AustLit, Powell won the Quarterly Review of Literature 45th Anniversary International Poetry Competition in 1989.