Joseph Brodsky

Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (/ˈbrɒdski/; Russian: Иосиф Александрович Бродский [ɪˈosʲɪf ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈbrotskʲɪj] (listen); 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist.

Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, Brodsky ran afoul of Soviet authorities and was expelled ("strongly advised" to emigrate) from the Soviet Union in 1972, settling in the United States with the help of W. H. Auden and other supporters. He taught thereafter at Mount Holyoke College, and at universities including Yale, Columbia, Cambridge, and Michigan.