Born Sitok Sunarto in Purwodadi, Central Java, he became interested in literature at a young age and was heavily influenced by his village's strong oral tradition.

[3] Though the villagers did not support their children attending school, and elders would chase prospective students away, they maintained a strong oral tradition that Sitok credits with influencing the sonic qualities of his poetry.

[3] Despite the resistance against education, Sitok obtained a scholarship which allowed him to complete his elementary and secondary school studies in the provincial capital of Semarang.

[4][b] In his ten years with Bengkel Teater, Sitok practiced poetry, monologues, and acting, and appeared in several of the troupe's plays.

[c] Funded by the singer-songwriter Iwan Fals, this collection was intended as a counterpoint to the rise in religious literature which had become popular in Indonesia in the early 1990s.

[4] In the mid-1990s Sitok became an independent artist, acting under directors such as Ikranegara (Jam Berapa Sekarang) and Ratna Sarumpaet (Pesta Terakhir);[5] he has remained active into the 2010s, portraying the Mahabharata warrior Karna in a 2011 play by Goenawan Mohamad.

[15] In 2000, Sitok published Anak Jadah (Bastard), a collection of poems described by Yenni Kwok of the Sunday Morning Post as "a statement about the confusion of his generation".

Explaining the title, Sitok stated that "Tradition and modernisation met in a careless encounter" producing "a generation of cultural bastards".

[19][20] of The Jakarta Post found "both structured and unstructured poetry" and "themes connected to the human condition, such as love, motherhood, childbirth and racism" in the collection.

Its first volume, Gembala Waktu dan Madah Pereda Rindu, contained poems written by Sitok while still in senior high school and university, up through 1989.

[23] In August 2015, Sitok released another poetry collection, Ereignis dan Cinta yang Keras Kepala, which contained fifty poems written between 2010 and 2014.

[25] Krassin Himmirsky, who translated several of Sitok's poems into Bulgarian, found his "poetic phrase ... laconic, muscular, and musical", with a universal message.

In 2011, Dian HP produced Delapan Komposisi Cinta (Eight Compositions of Love), a concert for Ubiet Raseuki, using lyrics taken directly from the poems of Sitok and Nirwan Dewanto.

[28] Sitok's poetry has been compared to the work of numerous other poets, both Indonesian and non-Indonesian, including Pablo Neruda,[4] Chairil Anwar, Iwan Simatupang, and Sitor Situmorang.

"[14] The translator John McGlynn writes that Sitok "explores topics with a depth and maturity not only rare among his peers, but also with a vocabulary and clarity that few other poets can match".

The open plan house itself is an "eclectic" design, "fus[ing] ethnic and art deco styles" and incorporating antique building materials from throughout Java.