Rita Ann Higgins (born 1955) is an Irish poet and playwright.
A native of Ballybrit, Galway, Higgins was one of thirteen children in a working-class household.
She married in 1973 but following the birth of her second child in 1977, contracted tuberculosis, forcing her to spend an extended period in a sanatorium.
Jessie Lendennie, editor of Salmon Publishing, encouraged Higgins and oversaw the publication of her first five collections.
She was made an honorary fellow at Hong Kong Baptist University in November 2006.