Born in Strasbourg, France on July 14, 1946, Joris was raised in Ettelbruck, Luxembourg. He left Luxembourg at nineteen, and has lived all over the world. He has worked as a visiting scholar at the University of California, San Diego and in the department of English at the University of Albany. He now lives in Brooklyn. Joris is a prolific writer and has published over twenty books and chapbooks of his poetry. He has also published numerous translations, essays, and anthologies. He has twice been the recipient of PEN awards for translation and in 2003 was the Berlin Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin. The author of over forty books, Joris is also considered to be one of the foremost translators of avant-garde poetry into both French and English, most notably the works of Paul Celan.