Ashok Vajpeyi is an Indian poet in Hindi, essayist, literary-cultural critic, apart from being a noted cultural and arts administrator, and a former civil servant. Ashok Vajpeyi born on January 16, 1941 currently lives in New Delhi. He is the founder of the multi-art center, Bharat Bhawan, in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh and was the first Vice Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi International Hindi University, Wardha. Ashok Vajpeyi is a former civil servant who has served as chairman, Lalit Kala Akademi the National Academy of Arts under Ministry of Culture, from 2008–2011. Ashok Vajpeyi has published more than twenty three books consisting of poetry, art, biography, art and criticism. Ashok Vajpeyi was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award given by India's National Academy in 1994 for his poetry collection, Kahin Nahin Wahin. 

The work of Ashok Vajpeyi has been translated in different Indian languages including English, French, and Polish. Ashok Vajpeyi has translated works of four major poets of Poland, Czeslaw Milosz, W. Szymborska, Z. Herbert and T. Rozewicz into Hindi. After his retirement from Indian Administrative Service (IAS), he has lived in Delhi. Ashok Vajpeyi was in news recently when he returned his Sahitya Akademi Award supporting "the right to dissent" and protesting recent murders of writers.