Wayne F. Burke was born in 1954 in a small manufacturing
town in the North Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.His father,
Edward, had been a sergeant in the Marine Corp before
becoming manager of a Mobil Flying-A Gasoline station; his
mother, Claire Burke nee Kelly, had worked in a textile mill
before becoming a full-time housewife. Both of his parents
died young: his mother at twenty-eight--at which time his
father moved him and his three siblings to the home of the
paternal grandparents. His father died at thirty-two. The four
children were raised by the grandparents and an Uncle. The
grandfather was owner and operator of BURKE'S INN, a
generational business begun previous to the First World War.
Wayne F. Burke attended public school, and after graduating
from High School, three institutions of higher learning before
graduating from Goddard College in 1979 (B.A. RUP). After
graduation he traveled around the country, living in a variety
of places and working at a variety of occupations (presently,
he is employed as an LPN in a nursing home). In the late-
80's he located himself in the central Vermont area and has
remained since. He published mostly prose until 2013 when
his first poetry collection was published. He was fifty-eight
years old. ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET CROUTON is his
7th published poetry collection. A book of short stories, titled
TURMOIL & Other Stories, is scheduled for publication by
Adelaide Press in 2020.
