He was educated at Lund University, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in 1976 for his dissertation La parole et le marbre: aux origines de la poétique grecque, on the origin of ancient Greek poetics.

Other works include Phrasikleia: anthropologie de la lecture en Grèce ancienne (1988).

In 2006, he was elected a member of the Swedish Academy, succeeding the poet Östen Sjöstrand in seat 8.

His poetry has been translated into English by the Swedish critic Lars-Håkan Svensson and the American poet John Matthias, and appearing, among other venues, in the journal Samizdat and the volume The Three-Toed Gull: Selected Poems, published by Northwestern University Press.

In 2010, Svenbro was awarded the Illis quorum in the eighth size by the Swedish government.