After studies at Adelaide Teachers College and Adelaide University, Edward Reilly taught Science and Mathematics for four years in South Australia, then moved to Victoria where he taught Years 7 - 12 English and Literature. He has also worked extensively as a Curriculum Consultant, and in Lithuania (2003). This work was recently recognized by the Lithuanian Republic.

He was awarded an MA (Deakin Uni. 1992) for his thesis on the Irish poet Thomas Kinsella, and completed a PhD (Victoria Uni. 2000) in Creative Writing & Poetics. He has published papers, short stories, poetry and prose in journals and as chapbooks, and has strong interests in Celtic and Baltic literatures. He has translated work from Lithuanian into English, and is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies.

Reilly has also published The Reilly Family History Project. No. 1. A dictionary of names and atlas (1982) and a book about Lithuania, First Snow (2004).