Kiely was born near Dromore, County Tyrone and was a student at the Christian Brothers School in Omagh. In 1937, he went to County Laois to take up a Jesuit novitiate, but went down with a tubercular spinal complaint in 1938. Lacking by then a vocation to the priesthood, he went on to University College Dublin. In 1943, he graduated B.A. from the National University.

On 5 July 1944, Kiely married Maureen O’Connell. This marriage produced four children:

In 1945, Kiely began working for the Irish Independent, where he was employed as a journalist and critic. In 1950, now a father of four, he joined the Irish Press as a literary editor. In 1964, he moved to America, where he was a Writer-in-Residence at Emory University, visiting professor at the University of Oregon, and Writer-in-Residence at Hollins College (Virginia). He spent four years in those three different places. In 1968, he returned to Ireland after having spent four years in America. In the spring of 1976, he was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Delaware. He continued to receive acclaim for his writing and journalism (a career which spans over six decades) receiving the Award for Literature from the Irish Academy of Letters. By now, he was one of Ireland’s best known writers. In 1996, he was named Saoi of Aosdána, the highest honour given by the Arts Council of Ireland.

Kiely visited Omagh in 2001. This was marked by the unveiling of a plaque outside his childhood home on Gallows Hill by Omagh’s Plain Speaking Community Arts group. In an interview at that time, when asked about censorship, he remarked with a typical quip: “If you weren’t banned, it meant you were no bloody good”. In September every year in Omagh, an event called The Benedict Kiely Literary Weekend is held to celebrate the author’s many achievements.

According to RTÉ News, Kiely died in St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin on 9 February 2007, aged 87.