Abraham Sutzkever was born in Smargon, Belorussia, Sutzkever was the descendant of well-known rabbinic and hasidic families. When he was two years old, his family fled to Siberia from the invading Germans. In 1920 the family returned to Vilna, where Sutzkever was educated. Subsequently he studied at the University of Vilna and devoted himself particularly to the study of literary criticism. In 1930 he joined the Jewish scouts organization of Vilna. When the Yung Vilne (Young Vilna) was formed in the early 1930s by a number of aspiring Yiddish writers, one of its founders, the poet Leizer Wolf, was the first to recognize Sutzkever's talent. Sutzkever's earliest lyrics, A Masknbal and Unter Regens Mayike (first published in Vokhnshrift far Literatur, Warsaw, and in Vilner Tog, Vilna, respectively), appeared in 1933; influenced by Moshe Kulbak, they made an impact with their freshness and originality. In 1935 Sutzkever attracted the attention of Aaron Glanz-Leyeles and was invited to become a regular contributor to the monthly In Zikh. His first book, Lider ("Songs"), appeared in 1937 and he was recognized as a rising figure in the Yiddish literary world. He met the author Joseph Roth who was impressed by Sutzkever; and at the age of 24 he was a recognized figure in the field of Yiddish poetry. In 1940 he published his second volume, Valdiks (Forests"), a hymn to nature. During World War II Sutzkever was in the Vilna ghetto, but he managed to escape and joined the partisans. After the liberation of Vilna, he worked together with Shmerl Kaczerginski to rescue a large number of the valuable documents of YIVO. From Vilna he was flown by plane to Moscow, where he was presented with a high award by the U.S.S.R. Two further volumes of poems appeared, Di Festung ("Fortress," 1945) and Lider fun Geto ("Songs of the Ghetto, 1946). The finest lyrics of Di Festung were about Sutzkever's mother, who had perished under the Nazis; she had exhorted him not to give way to despair because she would continue to live in him. His prose volume, Fun Vilner Geto ("From the Vilna Ghetto"), was published in Paris in 1946.

Sutzkever was a witness at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. In 1947 together with Chaim Grade he attended the International Pen Congress in Zurich as a spokesman for Yiddish literature. In 1947 he settled in Palestine where he was warmly received, and in 1948 he published Yidishe Gas ("Jewish Street) and Geheymshtot ("Secret Town"). The latter volume described the life of Jews in the filth and darkness of Vilna's subterranean canals, and their dreams of a peaceful existence in the future and of a heroic resurrection of the Jewish people. Among these denizens of the "secret town" was the poet, who lived to bear witness to pain which must be transformed into beauty. From 1949, Sutzkever was the editor of the important Yiddish literary quarterly Di Goldene Keyt. His poems include In Fayer Vogn (1952), Sibir (1953; with illustrations by Marc Chagall), Ode tsu der Toyb (1955), In Midber Sinai (1956), Gaystike Erd (1961; with original woodcuts by Arthur Kolnik), and Firkantike Oysyes un Mofsim (1968) and Tsaytike Penomer (1970). A complete edition of his poetry was published in two volumes in honor of his 50th birthday. Some of his poems have been translated into Hebrew, including Ir-ha-Setarim (1963), and Sibir (1952). The latter has also been translated into English Siberia (1961). Constantly creating new words and images, Sutzkever ferrets out beauty everywhere, and his poetry is particularly distinguished by its bold and inventive rhymes. He gave memorable artistic expression to the catastrophe of East European Jewry and to the new Jewish reality in Israel. In 1985 he was awarded the Israel Prize for Yiddish literature.