Yves Bonnefoy is a writer devoted to the analysis of poetry and art. He is a doctor honoris causa at various universities, including the University of Chicago. He has published numerous volumes of his own poetry, as well as French translations of Yeats and Shakespeare. In 1981, he was elected chair of Comparative Poetry at the Collège de France. He was awarded the Prix Montaigne in 1978 and the Bennett Award in New York in 1988.