Koyamparambath Satchidanandan was born in 1948 in Pulloot, a village in Kodungallur in the Thrissur District of Kerala. After his early education in the village school, he studied biology at Christ College, Irinjalakuda and had his Masters in English from Maharaja's College, Ernakulam. He obtained his PhD in post-structuralist poetics from the University of Calicut. He joined as a lecturer in English at K.K.T.M. Govt. College, Pulloot in 1968, and moved to Christ College, Irinjalakuda in 1970 where he became a Professor of English. He voluntarily retired from this post in 1992 to take up the editorship of "Indian Literature", the English journal of the Indian National Academy in Delhi. In 1996 he was nominated Secretary, the chief executive, of the Academy, a post from which he retired in 2006. Later he served as a Consultant to the Indian Government's Department of Higher Education and to the National Translation Mission. He also worked as Director, School of Translation Studies and Training at the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Delhi. He edited 'The Katha Library of Indian Literature', 'The Library of South Asian Literature' and "Beyond Borders", a journal of South Asian literature and ideas.