[2][3] He studied English and European Thought and Literature at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology.

[6] His first collection of poetry, The Hoop, was published in 1988 and won a Scottish Arts Council Book Award.

Burnside was also the author of two collections of short stories, Burning Elvis (2000), and Something Like Happy (2013), as well as several novels, including The Dumb House (1997), The Devil's Footprints, (2007), Glister, (2009) and A Summer of Drowning, (2011).

A further memoir, I Put A Spell On You, combined personal history with reflections on romantic love, magic and popular music.

His short stories and feature essays have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, The Guardian and The London Review of Books, among others.