Poet, translator, and jazz pianist Bill Zavatsky was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He earned his BA and MA from Columbia University, where he took classes with Kenneth Koch. Zavatsky also studied music at the New School in New York. He is the author of three collections of poetry: Where X Marks the Spot (2006), For Steve Royal and Other Poems (1985), and Theories of Rain and Other Poems (1975). Zavatsky is often grouped with second-generation New York School poets, and he has collaborated extensively with Ron Padgett. His work is influenced by urban life and his career as a pianist, and his poems have been used as liner notes by jazz musicians such as Bill Evans and Marc Copland.