Valentina Polukhina is married to Daniel Weissbort. She was born in Siberi and educated at Kemerovo, Tula and Moscow universities. Between 1962 and 1973 she taught at Moscow Lumumba University and from 1973 to 2001 she was Professor at Keele University, England. In addition to her publications on poets such as Akhmatova, Pasternak, Tsvetaeva, Khlebnikov and Mandelshtam, Valentina Polukhina is the author and editor of major studies of Brodsky, including Joseph Brodsky: A Poet for Our Time (1989); Brodsky Through the Eyes of his Contemporaries (1992); Brodskii glazami sovremennikov (1997;2005); A Dictionary of Brodsky's Tropes (1995); Joseph Brodsky: The Art of a Poem (1999); Brodsky as a Critic (2000); Kak rabotaet stikhotvorenie Brodskogo (2002); Joseph Brodsky: Bolshaya kniga intervyu (2000, 2005). Valentina Polukhina has a particular interest in bringing living Russian literature to English audiences. She has organised the visits of many Russian writers and poets to Keele and other English universities. The post of Russian Poet in Residence at the University of Keele, as well as the Russian Poets' Fund, were established thanks to her efforts.