Leith Morton began learning Japanese at Fort Street Boys High School in Sydney. At fourteen he began writing his own poems and at sixteen he began translating Japanese poetry. He teaches English in the Foreign Language Research and Teaching Centre, Tokyo Institute of Technology. He previously taught at Sydney University and Newcastle University, where he held the Foundation Chair in Japanese. He has written poetry and translated contemporary Japanese poetry; for example, Mt. Fuji : selected poems 1943-1986 by Kusano Shinpei. Morton has also written several scholarly works on Japanese literature. One of these is about a major Japanese writer: Divided Self: A Biography of Arishima Takeo (1988) .
