Adrian Rice was born in Belfast in 1958.
His first sequence of poems appeared in Muck Island, a collaboration with the artist Ross Wilson. Copies of this limited edition box set are in the collections of The Tate Gallery, The Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and the Lamont Library, Harvard University. A second sequence was published as Impediments (Newry, Co Down, Abbey Press,1997). His first full poetry collection, The Mason’s Tongue (Newry, Abbey Press, 1999), was short listed for the 2001 Christopher Ewart-Biggs Memorial Literary Prize and was nominated for the 2001 Irish Times Prize for Poetry.
He has also published The Tin God: A History of Cans Metal Box factory, Portadown.
For children he has edited anthologies of poetry, art and drama, including Life of the Lough (1999), Sea & Shore (2000), Around the Lough (2001); Lough Views (2003); Exploring the Lough: Creative Activities for the Primary School Classroom (2003); and Shore Lines (2004).
He is editor of The Abbey Press, and lives in Newry, Co Down.