Rita Ann Higgins was born in 1955 in Galway, Ireland, and still lives there. She published her first five collections with Salmon in Ireland, Goddess & Witch (1990), which combines Goddess on the Mervue Bus (1986) and Witch in the Bushes (1988), Philomena's Revenge (1992) and Higher Purchase (1996), followed by Sunny Side Plucked: New & Selected Poems (1996) and her latest collection An Awful Racket (2001) from Bloodaxe. Her plays include Face Licker Come Home (1991), God of the Hatch Man (1992), Colie Lally Doesn't Live in a Bucket (1993) and Down All the Roundabouts (1999).

She was Galway County's Writer-in-Residence in 1987, Writer in Residence at the National University of Ireland, Galway, in 1994-95, and Writer in Residence for Offaly County Council in 1998-99. In October 2000 she was Green Honors Professor at Texas Christian University. Her many awards include a Peadar O'Donnell Award in 1989 and several Arts Council bursaries. Sunny Side Plucked was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation. She is a member of Aosdána.