David Connolly was born in Sheffield, England, and is of Irish descent. He studied ancient Greek at the University of Lancaster, medieval and modern Greek literature at Trinity College, Oxford, and received his doctoral degree for a thesis on the theory and practice of literary translation from the University of East Anglia.
A naturalized Greek, he has lived and worked in Greece since 1979 and has taught translation at the undergraduate and postgraduate level for many years at a number of university institutions in Greece. He is currently professor of translation studies at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has written extensively on the theory and practice of literary translation and on Greek literature in general and has published over thirty books of translations featuring works by major Greek poets and novelists. His translations have received awards in Greece, the UK, and the USA.