As professor in Russian at Södertörns högskola Stockholm he was one of the founders of the literary translation seminar. He is the chief editor of Svenskt översättarlexikon, Swedish translation dictionary.

Between 1990 and 1994 he was installed as cultural attaché at the Swedish Embassy in Moscow. In 1970-71 he worked as editor of the culture journal Ord&Bild. In 1977 Lars Kleberg presented a thesis at Stockholm University on the subject Teatern som handling: Sovjetisk avantgardeestetik 1917–1927. Lars Kleberg is a translator from Russian and Polish, especially of poetry and drama. He has translated plays by Anton Chekhov and Sławomir Mrożek and poetry by Lev Rubinstein, Adam Zagajewski and Ryszard Krynicki..

In addition to his own books, such as Översättaren som skådespelare: essäer, Stockholm 2001, Tjechov och friheten: en litterär biografi, Stockholm 2010, and Vid avantgardets korsvägar: om Ivan Aksionov och den ryska modernismen, Stockholm 2015, he has been the editor of several anthologies and has worked on various literature-related issues. In 1988, three plays were published in the book Stjärnfall. The plays (Vattumännen, Trollkarlens lärlingar, and Askonsdag) were performed in 1991 by the Swedish radio's Radioteatern and won Nordiska Radioteaterpriset the same year. In 1988, his Trollkarlens lärlingar (Les Apprentis Sorciers) was staged at the Avignon Festival by Antoine Vitez.

His awards include Stiftelsen Natur & Kulturs översättarpris in 1996 and John Landquists pris in 2015.