Richard King was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the last twenty years has lived in the rural county of Powys, in mid-Wales. He is author of Original Rockers (2015), which was shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize, and How Soon Is Now? (2012), which was Sunday Times Music Book of the Year, both published by Faber. The Lark Ascending was published in 2019, and was a Rough Trade, Mojo and Evening Standard Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Penderyn Prize. Brittle With Relics: A History of Wales, 1962–1997 was published in February 2022. Richard is the current Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Cardiff University School of Journalism, Media & Culture.

Before his career as an author King worked in the independent music business, co-founding the record label Planet Records in Bristol at the age of twenty-two. The label’s roster was drawn from the city's underground music culture, releasing music by Movietone, Third Eye Foundation, Crescent, and Flying Saucer Attack, along with occasional American bands including Yo La Tengo and Harry Pussy. In 1996 King established a working relationship with Domino Records in London, an association that continued, with various degrees of formality, for over fifteen years. 

King has also regularly worked as a curator, programming and producing events at the Barbican Centre, London, the Cultural Olympiad, London 2012, the Hay Festival, Green Man Festival, where he curated the Babbling Tongues stage for five years and the International Festival of Apathy, Bristol. King was an honorary founding partner of the Do Lectures.

His writing has appeared in The Guardian, The Observer, Vice, Caught By The River and numerous other publications. King was also co-editor of Loops, a journal of long form music writing published jointly by Faber & Faber and Domino Records.