Russian-language emigrant poet, translator, and essayist, was born in 1947, in Ukraine. Together with Sergey Gandlevsky, Bakhyt Kenjeev and Alexander Soprovsky he founded the unofficial group of poets Moscow Time. In 1975 he was arrested and deported from Moscow and in the same year emigrated to the United States. He edited the emigre newspaper Russkaya Zhizn (San Francisco, 1976–77). In 1983 was awarded a PhD degree in philosophy. Tsvetkov taught Russian language and literature at Dickinson College, Pennsylvania, worked as an broadcaster at the Voice of America and at the Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty. In the late 80s he stopped writing poetry and turned to prose. In 2004, after a 17-year break, Tsvetkov turned back to poetry. He also writes and publishes poetry and essays in English. In 2007 he was awarded Andrei Bely prize for poetry. For many years Tsvetkov lived in New York. In 2018 he made aliyah and presently lives in Israel.