David Adams Richards was born in Newcastle and studied literature at St. Thomas University in Fredericton. In 1971 he began to read from what was to become his first novel, The Coming of Winter, the first five chapters of which won the Norma Epstein Prize for Creative Writing in 1973. The book was translated into Russian in 1979 and became widely read in the Soviet Union. His second novel, Blood Ties (1976) and a collection of short stories, Dancers at Night(1978) made way for the acclaim which greeted Lives of Short Duration in 1981, which firmly established his reputation as a leading Canadian author. Richards was writer-in-residence at the University of New Brunswick from 1983 to 1987. In 1986, he was named as one of the ten best Canadian writers under the age of 45 by the Canadian Book Information Centre and was awarded a silver medal by the Royal Society of the Arts for his overall contribution to literature in Eastern Canada. St. Thomas University awarded him an honourary Doctor of Laws degree in 1990.

Richards won the Canadian Authors Association Literary Award for Fiction in 1991 and was awarded the Canada-Australia Prize in 1992 for his important contribution to the world of literarture. Nights Below Station Street won the Governor-General's Literary Award for Fiction in 1985. The first novel of a trilogy, it was succeeded by Evening Snow Will Bring Such Peace in 1990 and For Those Who Hunt the Wounded Down in 1993. His book of non-fiction A Lad From Brantford, and Other Essays, appeared in 1994, followed by two more novels, Hope in The Desperate Hour (1996), and The Bay of Love and Sorrows (1998).

In 1993 David Adams Richards won Alden-Nowlan Award for excellence in English-language literary art and in 2000 David Adams Richards and Michael Ondaatje shared that year's Giller Prize.

Richards won for his novel Mercy Among the Children, Michael Ondaatje for Anil's Ghost. The Giller is worth $25,000 and is considered to be Canada's most prestigious book prize.

Richards' novel is a bleak family saga set in the Miramichi region of New Brunswick.