In 1915 Sutzkever and his family fled their home in eastern Europe to Siberia to escape World War I; they returned to the region in 1920 and lived near Vilna, where he later studied literary criticism at the University of Vilna. Influenced by intellectual thought at the Yiddish Scientific Institute (YIVO), he became associated with “Yung Vilne” (“Young Vilna”), a group of aspiring Yiddish writers, and contributed to the modernist poetry journal In zikh (“In Oneself”). His first published collection, Lider (1937; “Songs”), received critical acclaim. His collection Valdiks (1940; “Sylvan”) celebrates nature. Di festung (1945; “The Fortress”) reflects his experiences as a member of the ghetto resistance movement in Belorussia and his service with the partisans during World War II. Sutzkever returned to Poland in 1946, then lived briefly in France and The Netherlands. In 1946 Sutzkever testified at the Nürnberg trials, and in 1947 he settled in Palestine (later Israel), where from 1949 he edited the Yiddish literary and political journal Di goldene keyt (“The Golden Chain”).

The prose volume Fun Vilner geto (1946; “From the Vilna Ghetto”) and the poetry collections Lider fun geto (1946; “Songs from the Ghetto”), Geheymshtot (1948; “Secret City”), and Yidishe gas (1948; “Jewish Street”) are based on his experiences during World War II. Sibir (1953; Siberia) recalls his early childhood. Sutzkever's other collections of poetry include In midber Sinai (1957; “In the Sinai Desert”), Di fidlroyz (1974; The Fiddle Rose: Poems 1970–1972”), Burnt Pearls: Ghetto Poems of Abraham Sutzkever (1981), and Fun alte un yunge ksav-yadn (1982; Laughter Beneath the Forest: Poems from Old and New Manuscripts). An English-language anthology of his work, A. Sutzkever: Selected Poetry and Prose, was published in 1991.