He attended Richmond School in Yorkshire,[1] and gained an MA in English Literature at the University of Leeds (1977).

In 1987, Blackburn set up a small literary magazine, Harry's Hand, which ran for four issues from London.

During that period he also established Sunk Island Publishing, which issued Sunk Island Review, an irregular paperback of new poetry, fiction, reviews and translations, plus occasional novels and other titles (such as Radio Activity by John Murray, and Hallowed Ground by Robert Edric).

In 1995, he was a Writer in Residence on the Internet, courtesy of Arts Council/Channel, based at Artimedia in Batley, Yorkshire, and produced the hypertext project The Last of Harry.

From 2005 to 2008, Blackburn was the Royal Literary Fund fellow at the University of Lincoln, where he has also been a lecturer in English Literature & Creative Writing.