David Rivard (born 1953 in Fall River, Massachusetts) is an American poet.

[1] He is also a Professor of English Creative Writing in the Masters of Fine Arts program at the University of New Hampshire.

[2] His poems and essays have appeared in numerous literary magazines, including New England Review, Ploughshares, Poetry, and TriQuarterly.

Rivard was born in Fall River, Massachusetts and grew up in a blue-collar family of civil servants and dressmakers.

His father was a fireman and his great-grandfather is the first Portuguese policeman in Fall River.