Robert Mezey was born in 1935 in Philadelphia. He attended Kenyon College where he became acquainted with James Wright and Tony Stoneburner. He served in the U.S. Army before earning his B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1959. He worked as a probation officer, advertising copywriter, and social worker, did graduate study at Stanford, and began teaching English at Case Western Reserve University in 1963.

After a year as poet-in-residence at Franklin and Marshall College, he joined the English department of California State University, Fresno, spent three years at the University of Utah, and settled in 1976 at Pomona College in Claremont, California where he has been a professor and poet-in-residence.

Winner in 1960 of the Lamont Award for , he has published many poetry collections, coedited (1969), and was one of several translators for (1973). , a book of poems, appeared in 1987. His poems, prose, and translations have been appearing since 1953 in many journals, including , , , and the among others.

His books of poetry include , , , and . In 1982, Syracuse University Press published his annotated translation of Caesar Vallejo's novel, . In 1987, won a P.E.N. prize and the Bassine Citation. His were published by University of Arkansas Press in 2000. He edited, with Donald Justice, the . He has also published in the last few years his editions of (Penguin) and (Modern Library).

His awards include the Robert Frost Prize, the Lamont Selection (for ), an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a fellowship from the Ingram Merrill Foundation, one from the Guggenheim Foundation, and from the National Endowment of Arts.

Biographical information from The Alsop Review and The Bedford/St. Martin's Press websites.