Born in 1945 on the island of Smögen north of Gothenburg on the west coast of Sweden, prof. emeritus of the University of Gothenburg (Department of Literature, History of Ideas and Religion) and lecturer in "Litterär gestaltning" at the Faculty of Arts, received his PhD with a thesis on Swedish novelist Lars Ahlin.
He has been active as literary historian, essayist and translator of Old English and Old Icelandic poetry, together with Ildikó Márky also of the Hungarian authors Endre Ady and Péter Esterházy. Debut as a poet in 1979, since then 12 volumes of poetry, such as Olunn 1989, Lunnebok 1991, Idegransöarna 1994, AB Neandertal 1996, Lomonosovryggen 2009 and the volume Tapeshavet (2017). Most recently the essay collection: Garbo går iland (2020).