Born in 1945 in Pärnu, Jüri Talvet has become one of Estonia's foremost literary figures. He holds degrees in English Philology and Hispanic Literature, and since 1974 has taught comparative literature at Tartu University, serving since 1992 as Chair of the University's Department of Comparative Literature and since 1994 as Chair of the Estonian Association of Comparative Literature. He has travelled on grants and as a translator to Cuba, Mexico, Nicaragua, Spain, and the U.S.A., and has lectured in Finland, Norway, Spain, Poland, Sweden, and the Netherlands. In 1997 he was awarded the prestigious Juhan Liiv Prize of Poetry. His essay book in English, A Call for Cultural Symbiosis, was published in 2005 by Guernica. He has translated classical and modern Spanish language and English language poetry into Estonian (Quevedo, Calderón, Byron, Aleixandre, Espriu, etc.). He lives with his wife Margit and their three children in Tartu.