Olga Broumas was born on the Aegean island of Syros, Greece, in 1949. Her first book of poems, Restlessness, was written in Greek and published in 1967. In the same year, she won a Fullbright to attend the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied Architecture and Modern Dance. She began her poetic career in the U.S. as the 1977 winner of the Yale Younger Poets award, for Beginning with O—the first winner to write in an adopted tongue. Stanley Kunitz, judge for the 1977 award, described her work as that, ''of letting go, of wild avowals, unabashed eroticism: at the same time … work of integral imagination, steeped in the light of Greek myth that is part of the poet's heritage and imbued with an intuitive sense of dramatic conflicts and resolutions, high style, and musical form” (“Review of: Beginning with O,” 1976).

Broumas has taught at many colleges and universities, not neglecting her love for music and body expression. Currently she is Poet-in-Residence and Director of the Creative Writing Program at Brandeis University, and also a licensed bodywork therapist. Her poetry is that of the body, a poetry of ecstasy, celebration and healing, but also of concern for the social condition of women from a feminist and lesbian perspective. The winner of a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1978 and also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Olga Broumas has so far authored seven books of poetry, collected in Rave: 1975-1999, and four books of translations of the Greek Nobel Laureate, poet Odysseas Elytis, selected in Eros, Eros, Eros, as well as a CD recording of parts of the above, called simply Olga Broumas.