[1][2] Born in Sydney, Adamson grew up in Neutral Bay and spent much of his teenage years in Gosford Boys Home for juvenile offenders.
He acknowledges the influence of, among others, Rimbaud, Mallarmé, and Hart Crane upon his writing.
[6] In 2011 he won the Patrick White Award[7] and the Blake Poetry Prize.
[8] Adamson was appointed the inaugural CAL chair of poetry at UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) in 2012.
[9] Adamson died in palliative care (Neringah Hospital), Wahroonga, New South Wales[3] on 16 December 2022,[10] at the age of 79.