Miroslav Holub (pronounced [mɪrɔslaf ɦɔlʊp]; 13 September 1923 – 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist.
[1] Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect.
His first book in Czech was Denní služba (1958), which abandoned the somewhat Stalinist bent of poems earlier in the decade (published in magazines).
In English, he was first published in the Observer in 1962, and five years later a Selected Poems appeared in the Penguin Modern European Poets imprint, with an introduction by Al Alvarez and translations by Ian Milner and George Theiner.
In addition to poetry, Holub wrote many short essays on various aspects of science, particularly biology and medicine (specifically immunology) and life.