Kathleen Weaver studied at the University of Edinburgh and as a Ford Fellow in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. As a graduate student she was part of a women's group devoted to translating women poets, work that led to her co-edit The Other Voice: Twentieth Century Women Poets in Translation and Penguin Book of Women Poets. She has translated poetry and book length works from Spanish. Her biographical study of Magda Portal, Peruvian Rebel: The World of Magda Portal, was nominated for a Northern California Book Award. She lives in Berkeley.