Daniel Weissbort was born in 1935. He read History at Cambridge and did postgraduate work in the politics of literature during the post-Stalin period. He has translated many modern Russian poets, including Nikolai Zabolotsky and Yunna Morits. He edited Ted Hughes: Selected Translations (2006). He is Emeritus Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Iowa. He founded Modern Poetry in Translation with Ted Hughes in 1965, and was on the advisory board of the London Poetry International festivals from 1969 to 1972. He lives in London.