sentences:  He worked as a professor of Modern Languages and Literatures in the University of Oklahoma, writing mainly on Spanish language literature.From 1967 to 1991 he was the editor-in-chief of the international literary quarterly World Literature Today (formerly Books Abroad) and directed its two affiliated biennial literary programs, the Neustadt International Prize for Literature (1970- ) and the Puterbaugh Conferences on Writers of the French-Speaking and Hispanic World (1968- ), later known as Puterbaugh Conference on World Literature.He was married to Latvian poet and translator Astrid Ivask (1926–2015).